The capability of indigenous bacteria and microalgae in crude oil effluents to grow in and utilize crude oil as their sole source of carbon and energy provides an environmentally friendly and economical process for dealing with crude oil pollution and its inherent hazards. In view of the toxicity of crude oil spillages to indwellers of the affected ecosystems and the entire affected environment, the isolation of pure bacterial and microalgae cultures from crude effluents is a step in the right direction, particularly for bio-augmentation or bioremediation purposes. The total heterotrophic bacteria count and hydrocarbon utilizing bacteria count, as well as the microalgae count, were determined with the pour plate technique. The physicochemical properties of the effluent samples were also analyzed. Identification of the hydrocarbon utilizing bacteria was performed with phenotypic techniques. The result shows a mean total heterotrophic bacterium count of 5.91 log CFU/ml and a mean microalga count of 4.77 log cells/ml. When crude oil and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) were used as sole carbon sources, total hydrocarbon utilizing bacteria counts were respectively estimated at 3.89 and 2.89 log CFU/ml. Phenotypic identification of hydrocarbon utilizing bacteria in the crude oil effluents revealed the presence of two main bacterial genera: Streptococcus and Pseudomonas. Data obtained from this study confirmed the biodegradative abilities of indigenous bacterial species, thus, ultimately resulting in the amelioration of the toxicity associated with the crude oil effluents.

This study was carried out to identify and characterize the bacteria and fungi present in used face masks, obtained from some clinical sections of University Teaching Hospital in Nigeria. The phenotypic; microbiological and biochemical identifications of the microorganisms were determined by the pour plate techniques using, nutrient agar according to established standard protocols. The results recorded a mean total bacterial count that ranged from 1.75 ± 0.12 log10 CFU/ml to 4.36 ± 0.28 log10 CFU/ml. However, the samples collected from the Anatomy section recorded the lowest bacterial count (1.75 ± 0.12 log10 CFU/ml) while samples obtained from the Nursing section had the highest bacterial load (4.36 ± 0.28 log10CFU/ml). The overall screening test showed the presence of three bacterial isolates: Peptococcus, Pseudomonas and Staphylococcus; Consequently, from the total 64 counted bacterial colonies, the frequency of occurrence was predominated by the Pseudomonas 40 (62.5 %) while, mild counts were respectively reported for Staphylococcus and Peptococcus 18 (28.1 %) and 06 (9.40 %).  Succinctly, this work has highlighted that, the underlying illnesses such as lung abscesses, asthma, otitis, pneumonia and sinusitis associated with the isolated organisms in this experiment are also directly linked or similar to the symptoms displayed in mild and severe cases of COVID-19 patients.

A variety of simple culture-based tests which are proposed to recover a wide range of microorganisms from water are collectively known as heterotrophic plate count (HPC) and used as an indirect indicator to give information about water quality.  The aim of this study was to assess the heterotrophic plate count (HPC) culture-based dependent and 16S rRNA independent techniques of identifying bacteria. The HPC was conducted by incubating a filtered sample of water on R2A agar plates and enumerating the number of resultant bacterial colonies that grow on each plate. The molecular analysis was performed by extracting the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) from bacterial isolate and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was done to obtain the amplicons (PCR products). Purified PCR products were sequenced by ABI V3.1 Big dye kit and the analysis of sequence was conducted by the basic local alignment search tool (BLAST) to identify their closest relatives. A total number of 17 isolates of Pseudomonas, Bacillus and Proteus were phenotypically identified, while the nucleotide sequence revealed the presence of 59 diverse strains with distribution (percentage) of Pseudomonas (25) 42.2 %, Bacillus 17 (28.8 %) and Proteus (17) 28.8 %. The investigated isolates when compared from gene data-base recorded genetic relatedness with similarity index of 61 to 100 %. The 16S rRNA gene sequences from DNA extractions showed microbial consortia in drinking water to comprise of a broad array of bacterial diversity, including those of critical concern to human health such as Pseudomonas and Bacillus. Finally, there was no significant correlation between the HPC test and 16S rRNA sequence analysis.

In drinking water systems, a large number of microorganisms live in complex communities in a selfproduced extracellular polymeric matrix associated with inner surfaces of pipes, walls and floors of storage tanks, joints and faucets. This study was aimed at analyzing the physicochemical and microbiological characteristics of bacterial isolates of drinking water distribution systems in some higher institutions in Edo State. The physicochemical parameters were determined by using standard protocol and microbiological water quality was conducted using the standard microbiological methods. The results of the physicochemical analysis showed that, the pH values ranged between 4.17 and 5.89. The highest (5.89) was recorded with samples from OK-R and the least (4.17) was obtained from UB-T. The electrical conductivity (EC) values for SA-R (104.8µS/cm), AA-R (105.5 µS/cm) and OKR (114.8 µS/cm) exceeded the permissible threshold value of 100µS/cm. Concentrations of lead for AA-R (0.02 mg/L) and OK-R (0.03 mg/L) were significantly higher than the acceptable level of 0.01mg/L. The mean total heterotrophic bacterial counts ranged from 3.3 ± 0.3 x 10 2 cfu/mL to 9.3 ± 0.3 x 10 2 cfu/mL, with the least and highest counts recorded for UB-R and AA-R. Phenotypically identified bacteria were the Citrobacter, Klebsiella, Bacillus, Pseudomonas, Proteus and Providencia species. The study revealed that drinking water system of biofilms is a reservoir for microorganisms that could cause public health concerns which is impacted by the presence of available nutrient, environmental conditions and heavy metals.

This study was conducted to identify and characterize bacteria capable of degrading spent oil contaminated soil. The physicochemical parameters of used engine oil were analyzed according to existing standards, while the total heterotrophic plate counts (HBC) and hydrocarbon utilizing bacteria counts were ascertained with the pour plate methods using nutrient agar and minimal salt agar (MSA) media respectively. The results indicated a mean total HBC ranging from 2.86 ± 0.08 to 5.76 log10 CFU/g and mean hydrocarbon utilizing bacterial counts from 1.32 ± 0.09 to 3.82 ± 0.25 log10 CFU/g, with samples enriched with Glycine max (Soybean) recorded to have the highest bacterial counts. The phenotypic identification of the hydrocarbon utilizing bacteria as sources of carbon and energy showed the presence of two primary bacterial genera: Bacillus and Micrococcus.However, from the overall 50 counted colonies, the frequency of occurrence for Bacillus was 41 (82 %) whereas, the Micrococcus was (9) 18%. The obtained data, confirmed the breakdown capacity of autochthonous (indigenous) organisms notably; Bacillus in the reduction of pollutants linked with oil spillage. This provides for reliable and promising approach of ameliorating crude oil pollutants and its inherent threats. Keywords: Soil, spent oil, Glycine max, degrading bacteria, isolation and bioremediation