Isolation of Gram-positive n-alkane degraders from a hydrocarbon-contaminated Mediterranean shoreline

Abstract

Aims: To investigate the petroleum hydrocarbon (HC)‐degrading potential of indigenous micro‐organisms in a sandy Mediterranean coast, accidentally contaminated with petroleum‐derived HCs. Methods and Results: Using culturable methods, a population of Gram‐positive n‐alkane degraders was detected in the contaminated soil. Five isolates, identified as one Nocardia, two Rhodococcus and two Gordonia strains, were able to degrade medium‐ and long‐chain n‐alkanes up to C36 as assessed by growth assays and gas chromatography‐mass spectrometry analysis. Diverging alkane hydroxylase‐encoding genes (alkB) were detected by PCR, using degenerated primers, in all the strains; multiple sequences were obtained from the Nocardia strain, while only one alkB gene was detected in the Rhodococcus and Gordonia strains. The majority of the alkB sequences were related to Rhodococcus alkB2, but none was identical to it. Conclusions: Actinomycetes might have a key role in bioremediation of n‐alkane‐contaminated sites under dry, resource‐limited conditions, such as those found in the Mediterranean shorelines. Significance and Impact of the Study: To our knowledge, this is the first study on the bioremediation potential in Mediterranean contaminated beaches.

Stimulated Biodegradation of Spent Lubricating Motor Oil in Soil Amended with Animal Droppings

“…Although some studies have shown that, oil polluted soils are dominated by Gram-negative bacteria (Macnaughton et al, 1999;Kaplan and Kitts, 2004), the dominant culturable hydrocarbon-utilizing bacteria from the soil investigated were made up of Grampositive Actinobacteria of the genera Pseudomonas, Bacillus, Acinetobacter, Micrococcus and Corynebacterium , this corroborates the findings of Quatrini et al, (2008) who isolated 2 Rhodococcus, 2 Gordonia and 1 Norcadia strains as dominant hydrocarbon-degraders from a hydrocarbon contaminated Mediterranean shoreline.…”

Isolation and application of Gordonia sp. JC11 for removal of boat lubricants

“…Many microbial isolates in these genera were recognized as oil-degrading microorganisms by earlier researchers, such as Muthukumar et al (2003), Chaerun et al (2004), Al-Awadhi et al (2007) and Quatrini et al (2008). The presence of various crude oildegrading microorganisms corresponded to the contamination of petroleum hydrocarbons in Thai coastal areas (Wattayakorn, 2005).…”

“…Ud-4 isolated from seawater degraded 32% of 1% lubricant during the same period (Tanaka et al, 2010). Bacteria in the genus Gordonia have been isolated from various petroleum hydrocarbon-contaminated sites, including oily seawater (Arenskötter et al, 2004;Brito et al, 2006;Quatrini et al, 2008;Shen et al, 2008). Earlier reports demonstrated that Gordonia persist in severe conditions and possess special cellular physiology, including high cell surface hydrophobicity, emulsifi cation activity and EPS synthesis, to enhance hydrophobic substrate uptake (Arenskötter et al, 2004;Franzetti et al, 2009;Fusconi et al, 2006Fusconi et al, , 2010.…”

Characterization of diesel degrading bacterial species from contaminated tropical ecosystem

“…However, the bacterial diversity of tropical ecosystems is less explored. In bioremediation, the detoxification of organic contaminants has been established as an efficient, economic, versatile and environmentally sound treatment (Margesin et al 2003;Nweke and Okpokwasili 2004;Kaplan and Kitts 2004;Quatrini et al 2008). This is possible because the microorganisms have catabolic gene pool that is necessary for synthesizing the enzymes that can mediate the critical steps in diesel oil degradation.…”