Preferential utilization of petroleum oil hydrocarbon components by microbial consortia reflects degradation pattern in aliphatic–aromatic hydrocarbon binary mixtures

Abstract

In this study, the abilities of two microbial consortia (Y and F) to degrade aliphatic-aromatic hydrocarbon mixtures were investigated. Y consortium preferentially degraded the aromatic hydrocarbon fractions in kerosene, while F consortium preferentially degraded the aliphatic hydrocarbon fractions. Degradation experiments were performed under aerobic conditions in sealed bottles containing liquid medium and n-octane or n-decane as representative aliphatic hydrocarbons or toluene, ethylbenzene or p-xylene as representative aromatic hydrocarbons (all at 100 mg/l). Results demonstrated that the Y consortium degraded p-xylene more rapidly than n-octane. It degraded toluene, ethylbenzene and p-xylene more rapidly than decane. In comparison, the F consortium degraded n-octane more rapidly than toluene, ethylbenzene or p-xylene, and n-decane more rapidly than toluene, ethylbenzene or p-xylene. 16S rRNA gene sequencing revealed that the Y consortium was dominated by Betaproteobacteria and the F consortium by Gammaproteobacteria, and in particular Pseudomonas. This could account for their metabolic differences. The substrate preferences of the two consortia showed that the aliphatic-aromatic hydrocarbon binary mixtures, especially the n-decane-toluene/ethylbenzene/ p-xylene pairs, reflected their degradation ability of complex hydrocarbon compounds such as kerosene. This suggests that aliphatic-aromatic binary systems could be used as a tool to rapidly determine the degradation preferences of a microbial consortium.

Bacterial Community Response in Deep Faroe-Shetland Channel Sediments Following Hydrocarbon Entrainment With and Without Dispersant Addition

“…Oleispira was significantly more abundant in O-treatment incubations in this study and is active in cold environments (Yakimov et al, 2003;Kube et al, 2013;Gentile et al, 2016). Pseudomonas can degrade various structured hydrocarbons from cold environments (Bacosa et al, 2010;Viggor et al, 2013). Relative abundance data suggests Pseudomonas phylotypes were most prominent toward the end of the incubation period.…”

Extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) producing and oil degrading bacteria isolated from the northern Gulf of Mexico

“…The isolates degraded the oil at different rates during the four day incubation period (S4 Fig and S5 Fig). Alkanes were preferably degraded (16.8–76.9%) over the more toxic and recalcitrant PAHs (0.90–23.3%) (Fig 7), a typical biodegradation pattern [27,28,41,64,65]. W14 was the most effective degrader (76.9%, P<0.01) followed by W13a and C1 degrading more than 65% of alkanes.…”

Natural Sunlight Shapes Crude Oil-Degrading Bacterial Communities in Northern Gulf of Mexico Surface Waters

“…However, in the oil mousses from the surface water collected at about the same time, Alcanivorax and Pseudomonas were not abundant (Liu and Liu, 2013 ; Liu et al, 2013 ). Pseudomonas can utilize a wide range of hydrocarbon substrates (Bacosa et al, 2011 , 2013 ; Bacosa and Inoue, 2015 ), while Alcanivorax are often associated with n -alkanes and branched alkane degradation such as pristane and phytane (Hara et al, 2003 ; Harayama et al, 2004 ; Head et al, 2006 ; Yakimov et al, 2007 ; Kostka et al, 2011 ; Gutierrez et al, 2013b ). In our photooxidation and biodegradation study (Bacosa et al, 2015 ), these compounds were degraded in the dark but not in the light which might be attributed to Alcanivorax and/or Pseudomonas (Figure S3B ).…”