Biodegradation of Petroleum Hydrocarbons by Drechsleraspicifera Isolated from Contaminated Soil in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Currently, the bioremediation of petroleum hydrocarbons employs microbial biosurfactants because of their public acceptability, biological safety, and low cost. These organisms can degrade or detoxify organic-contaminated areas, such as marine ecosystems. The current study aimed to test the oil-biodegradation ability of the fungus Drechslera spicifera, which was isolated from contaminated soil samples in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. We used hydrocarbon tolerance, scanning electron microscopy, DCPIP, drop-collapse, emulsification activity, recovery of biosurfactants, and germination assays to assess the biodegradation characteristics of the D. spicifera against kerosene, crude, diesel, used, and mixed oils. The results of DCPIP show that the highest oxidation (0.736 a.u.) was induced by crude oil on the 15th day. In contrast, kerosene and used oil had the highest measurements in emulsification activity and drop-collapse assays, respectively. Meanwhile, crude and used oils produced the highest amounts of biosurfactants through acid precipitation and solvent extraction assays. Furthermore, the biosurfactants stimulated the germination of tomato seeds by more than 50% compared to the control. These findings highlight the biodegradation ability of D. spicifera, which has been proven in the use of petroleum oils as the sole source of carbon. That might encourage further research to demonstrate its application in the cleaning of large, contaminated areas.

Biodegradation of Selected Hydrocarbons by Fusarium Species Isolated from Contaminated Soil Samples in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

“…cubense treated with antifungal hydrocarbons had wrinkled external hyphal surfaces, borders deformity, and ruptured bubbles [ 42 ]. Another study showed that the filamentous fungi D. spicifera showed abnormal morphological changes upon treatments with different petroleum hydrocarbons [ 27 ].…”

“…The tubes were vigorously shaken by vortex to homogenize the contents for 2 min at room temperature. The mixtures were allowed to settle overnight, then the heights of the emulsion layers were measured and proportioned from the total height to estimate the percentage of the emulsification activity, as described before [ 27 ].…”

“…To assess the sustainability of fungal biosurfactants, a germination assay was applied [ 27 ]. A hundred tomato seeds were immersed in 50 mL of CFS and incubated overnight on an orbital shaker at 200 rpm.…”

Silver nanoparticles improve the fungicidal properties of Rhazya stricta decne aqueous extract against plant pathogens

“…As previously stated, the slides were fixed overnight at 4°C with 2.5% Glutaraldehyde, then washed with phosphate buffer (pH 7.2), and re-fixed with 1% Osmium Tetroxide. As previously stated, dehydration in successive dilutions of ethanol, freeze-drying in a critical point drier, and mounting on gold-plated stubs were all completed 52 .…”

Isolation, genetic identification and optimization of hydrocarbon degrading bacteria from petroleum contaminated soil in Raigad region

“…Thus, isolation of such predominant indigenous microorganisms from specific contaminated sites with high degrading ability can act as promising candidate for remediation of contaminated sites (Patowary et al, 2016). Bacterial hydrocarbon degraders like Arthrobacter, Achromobacter, Brevibacterium, Bacillus, Flavobacterium, Pseudomonas, Rhodococcus and Stenotrophomaonas have been reported to degrade certain types of mono or polyaromatic, aliphatic hydrocarbons (Al-Zahrani et al, 2022). Various factors like temperature, nutrients, substrate, aeration play vital roles and should be maintained in favorable conditions to carry out maximum biodegradation.…”