Characterization of native fungi responsible for degrading crude oil from the coastal area of Yanbu, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

A total of 15 fungal isolates were obtained from oil-contaminated sites near the Red Sea in the Yanbu region. Based on the preliminary DCPIP (2,6-dichlorophenolindophenol) assay, three isolates showed promising oil degrading ability. The next-generation sequencing of the ITS-I and ITS-II internal transcribed spacer regions assigned the isolates to Aspergillus and Penicillium. Among these three strains, Y2 (Aspergillus oryzae) was the most efficient, degrading about 99% of the crude oil. The degradation rates were corroborated using spectrophotometric and gas chromatographymass spectrometry analyses after two weeks of cultivation in Bushnell-Haas medium. All the three strains proved to be potent oil-degrading strains and, hence, can be utilized to degrade oil contaminants.

Functional Diversity of Fungal Communities in Soil Contaminated with Diesel Oil

“…Some petroleum products stimulate the proliferation of fungi ( Fan et al, 2014 ; Silva et al, 2015 ; El-Hanafy et al, 2017 ), and bacteria in soil ( Sutton et al, 2013 ; Jiang et al, 2016 ). Hence, large changes in the activity of the enzymes were determined in soil polluted with diesel oil.…”

“…They respond positively to the input of organic matter to soil ( Gomez et al, 2006 ; Islam et al, 2011 ; Mohsenzadeh et al, 2012 ). They can be effective in the removal of petroleum products from soil, e.g., some species of the genera Aspergillus ( Díaz-Ramírez et al, 2013 ; El-Hanafy et al, 2017 ) and Candida ( Fan et al, 2014 ; Silva et al, 2015 ). High capacity to degrade diesel oil is also ascribed to such fungi as Alternaria alternaria, Aspergillus terreus, Cladosporium sphaerospermum, Eupenicillium hirayamae, Paecilomyces variotii, Trichoderma tomentosum , and Fusarium oxysporum ( Ameen et al, 2016 ; Jiang et al, 2016 ; Marchand et al, 2017 ).…”

Resistance of aerobic microorganisms and soil enzyme response to soil contamination with Ekodiesel Ultra fuel

“…According to Yemashova et al ( 2007 ), the count of bacteria able to use petroleum carbohydrates as a source of energy in unpolluted soil is 10 2 –10 3 in 1 g of soil, while in polluted soil, it equals 10 6 –5 × 10 7 CFU g −1 . The dominant bacteria which effectively participate in decomposition of crude oil are as follows: Acinetobacter , Bacillus , Pseudomonas and Staphylococcus (Fatima et al 2015 ; Moscoso et al 2012 ; Mnif et al 2015 ), and the fungi with such an ability include Aspergillus and Candida (El-Hanafy et al 2017 ; Fan et al 2014 ; Silva et al 2015 ). In general, changes in the communities of microorganisms are periodic, which is evidenced by fluctuations in the structure of r-strategy and K-strategy microorganisms (De Leij et al 1993 ; Dorodnikov et al 2009 ; Ernebjerga and Kishony 2012 ).…”

“…In conclusion, it should be stressed, based on the conducted studies and the literature (Lipińska et al 2015 ; Wu et al 2014 ; Wyszkowska et al 2015 ), that oil products significantly affect the stability of the soil ecosystem. It should also be noted that the long-term exposure of a particular ecosystem to stimuli of different types leads to the development of appropriate defensive mechanisms that are capable of maintaining the proper soil biological balance (Griffiths and Philippot 2013 ), as even the most stable substances in the soil environment can be metabolised by microorganisms (Adam et al 2017 ; Fan et al 2014 ; Fatima et al 2015 ; El-Hanafy et al 2017 ). Even though oil-derived hydrocarbons may be degraded by bacteria, fungi, yeasts and algae, it is bacteria that perform an essential role in the transformation of PAHs (Table 1 ).…”

“…Many soil microorganisms are actively involved in restoring the biological balance of soils contaminated with oil products (Table 1 ). As for bacteria, the following genera are dominant: Bacillus (Bento et al 2005 ; Fatima et al 2015 ), Pseudomonas (Fatima et al 2015 ), Staphylococcus (Moscoso et al 2012 ; Silva et al 2015 ), Acinetobacter (Chang et al 2011 ; Mnif et al 2015 ) and Paenibacillus (Lipińska et al 2015 ), while as regards fungi, the following genera predominate: Aspergillus (Diaz-Ramirez et al 2013 ; El-Hanafy et al 2017 ) and Candida (Fan et al 2014 ; Silva et al 2015 ). These products can also be removed from soil by, inter alia, biostimulation of autochthonous microorganisms (Adam et al 2017 ; Fan et al 2014 ), bioaugmentation (Chang et al 2011 ; Fan et al 2014 ; Galiulin and Galiulina 2015 ; Semrany et al 2012 ), phytoremediation (Agnello et al 2016 ; Sivitskaya and Wyszkowski 2013 ; Soleimani et al 2010 ) and electro-bioremediation (Shrestha et al 2010 ; Yuan et al 2016 ; Wang et al 2012 ).…”