No abstract

No abstract

It was shown that the studied petroleum products, kerosene and gasoline, contain microfloccules of heterogeneous microbial biofilms, the cells of which are integrated in a polymer matrix containing acidic polysaccharides. Thirteen bacterial strains were microbiologically isolated from petroleum products, and their taxonomy was identified via analysis of the 16S rRNA sequence. Kerosene was characterized by a diverse bacterial composition, including the following genera: Sphingobacterium, Alcaligenes, Rhodococcus, and Deinococcus. The gasoline bacterial community included only two genera: Bacillus and Paenibacillus. Representatives of the Deinococcus genus that are capable of growing on hydrocarbons were isolated from fuels for the first time. Strains isolated from gasoline (Bacillus safensis Bi13 and Bacillus sp. Bi14) proved to be the most effective biodegraders of all n-alkanes, isoalkanes, cycloalkanes, alkenes, and aromatic hydrocarbons, whereas the strain Rhodococcus erythropolis Bi6, which was isolated from kerosene, effectively decomposed only n-alkanes and trimethylbenzene. Both types of the studied petroleum products contained hydrocarbonoxidizing communities, some members of which were more active in hydrocarbon biodegradation, while others were capable of producing biosurfactants and compounds with emulsifying activity (Deinococcus sp. Bi7) or had increased (well above average) cell-wall hydrophobicity (Sphingobacterium sp. Bi5 from kerosene; Bacillus pumilus Bi12 from gasoline). The indicated properties of the studied strains make them promising for use in bioremediation.