A Review on the Genetics of Aliphatic and Aromatic Hydrocarbon Degradation

Abstract

Because of the high diversity of hydrocarbons, degradation of each class of these compounds is activated by a specific enzyme. However, most of other downstream enzymes necessary for complete degradation of hydrocarbons maybe common between different hydrocarbons. The genes encoding proteins for degradation of hydrocarbons, including the proteins required for the uptake of these molecules, the specific enzyme used for the initial activation of the molecules and other necessary degrading enzymes are usually arranged as an operon. Although the corresponding genes in many phylogenetic groups of microbial species show different levels of diversity in terms of the gene sequence, the organisation of the genes in the genome or on plasmids and the activation mode (inductive or constitutive), some organisms show identical hydrocarbon-degrading genes, probably as a result of horizontal gene transfer between microorganisms.

Responses of Microbial Communities to Hydrocarbon Exposures

“…Heterotrophic microorganisms (microbes that obtain their metabolic energy and cellular carbon from organic carbon compounds) use a plethora of metabolic pathways for consuming hydrocarbons in the largely nutrientlimited marine environment. The majority of research to date has emphasized the pathways for degradation and/or transformation of aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons, since these dominate crude oils and are gas chromatography (GC) amenable and thus easier to study (Fuchs et al, 2011;Abbasian et al, 2015;Ladino-Orjuela et al, 2016).…”

Co-selection of antibiotic and metal(loid) resistance in gram-negative epiphytic bacteria from contaminated salt marshes

“…Thus, the link between metal and antibiotic resistance genotypes was not confirmed. Since plasmids were common in isolates from the control site, their presence may be related with contaminants other than metal(loid)s. For example, hydrocarbon contamination has been reported in this estuary (Oliveira et al, 2014) and catabolic genes related to hydrocarbon degradation are frequently encoded in plasmids (Abbasian et al, 2016).…”

The Effects of Storage on Turbine Engine Fuels

“…The metabolism of parainic hydrocarbon is known to occur under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions and there have been several mechanisms proposed [25]. All of the mechanisms appear to convert the hydrocarbons initially to faty acids either through an oxidative mechanism or through a mechanism that begins with the addition of fumarate, followed by a series of steps to give carbon dioxide and faty acids [26].…”