Anaerobic and Aerobic Growth of <i>Bacillus Licheniformis</i> in Gasoline Contaminated Soil of Federal Institute of Industrial Research Oshodi (Fiiro), Lagos, Nigeria

Abstract

Studies on the anaerobic and aerobic growth of Bacillus licheniformis bacteria show that the same growth factor suffice for both aerobic and anaerobic growth, thus supporting [13, 22] formulation of photosynthesis and carbon assimilation in these forms, and his thesis that the previously observed need for peptone or yeast extract could be attributed to their content of essential growth factors. A bottle technique for anaerobic cultures and a flask technique for aerobic cultures are described in detail. Photosynthesis in Bacillus licheniformis bacteria is best observed when they are grown anaerobic. The experiments described here indicate that although the culture media had to be modified to conform to certain special requirement imposed by anaerobic growth, the required growth factors remained the same. The Bacillus licheniformis bacteria display the same growth pattern in both aerobic and anaerobic condition in ethylene substrate but there was slight change of its growth pattern in both aerobic and anaerobic condition for xylene and benzene substrate which are aromatic compounds. This study shows higher growth of Bacillus licheniformis bacteria in aerobic condition than anaerobic condition. The Bacillus licheniformis bacteria had the highest bacterial population of 1.66x10 7 CFU/g in ethylene substrate for week four in this experiment. The findings suggest that Bacillus licheniformis bacteria is most adapted to conditions present in soils contaminated with gasoline and hence can be exploited in bioremediation activities [18].