Brevibacterium aureum DG-12, a new bacterial strain isolated from active sludge, was able to degrade and utilize cyfluthrin as a growth substrate in the mineral medium. Response surface methodology using central composite rotatable design of cultural conditions was successfully employed for optimization resulting in 88.6% degradation of cyfluthrin (50 mg L-1) within 5 days. The bacterium degraded cyfluthrin by cleavage of both the carboxylester linkage and diaryl bond to form 2,2,3,3-tetramethyl-cyclopropane-methanol, 4-fluoro-3-phenexy-benzoic acid, 3,5-dimethoxy phenol, and phenol, and subsequently transformed these compounds with a maximum specific degradation rate, half-saturation constant and inhibition constant of 1.0384 day(-1), 20.4967 mg L-1, and 141.9013 mg L-1, respectively. A novel degradation pathway for cyfluthrin was proposed based on analysis of these metabolites. In addition, this strain was found capable of degrading a wide range of synthetic pyrethroid insecticides. Our results suggest that B. aureum DG-12 may be an ideal microorganism for bioremediation of the pyrethroid-contaminated environments. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.