Aerobic bacteria degrading both n-alkanes and aromatic hydrocarbons: an undervalued strategy for metabolic diversity and flexibility

Abstract

Environmental pollution with petroleum toxic products has afflicted various ecosystems, causing devastating damage to natural habitats with serious economic implications. Some crude oil components may serve as growth substrates for microorganisms. A number of bacterial strains reveal metabolic capacities to biotransform various organic compounds. Some of the hydrocarbon degraders are highly biochemically specialized, while the others display a versatile metabolism and can utilize both saturated aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons. The extended catabolic profiles of the latter group have been subjected to systematic and complex studies relatively rarely thus far. Growing evidence shows that numerous bacteria produce broad biochemical activities towards different hydrocarbon types and such an enhanced metabolic potential can be found in many more species than the already well-known oil-degraders. These strains may play an important role in the removal of heterogeneous contamination. They are thus considered to be a promising solution in bioremediation applications. The main purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the current knowledge on aerobic bacteria involved in the mineralization or transformation of both n-alkanes and aromatic hydrocarbons. Variant scientific approaches enabling to evaluate these features on biochemical as well as genetic levels are presented. The distribution of multidegradative capabilities between bacterial taxa is systematically shown and the possibility of simultaneous transformation of complex hydrocarbon mixtures is discussed. Bioinformatic analysis of the currently available genetic data is employed to enable generation of phylogenetic relationships between environmental strain isolates belonging to the phyla Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, and Firmicutes. The study proves that the co-occurrence of genes responsible for concomitant metabolic bioconversion reactions of structurally-diverse hydrocarbons is not unique among various systematic groups.

Elucidation of multiple alkane hydroxylase systems in biodegradation of crude oil n ‐alkane pollution by Pseudomonas aeruginosa DN1

“…Research increasingly suggests that n ‐alkanes are vulnerable to micro‐organism attack (Lin et al . ; Brzeszcz and Kaszycki ), and the presence of multiple alkane hydroxylase genes is also observed in bacteria among many genera, such as Acinetobacter sp. DSM17894, Mycobacterium sp.…”

“…Crude oil pollution is of great concern on account of causing devastating damage to natural habitats with serious economic implications (Brzeszcz and Kaszycki ). Bioremediation of crude oil pollution has aroused the attention of the world and became an active area (Xu and Lu ).…”

Hydrocarbon Removal by Two Differently Developed Microbial Inoculants and Comparing Their Actions with Biostimulation Treatment

“…Each treatment was performed in quadruplicate. After 60 days of incubation, the residual hydrocarbon content was assessed using GC/FID (gas chromatography with a flame ionization detector) analyses performed according to the previously described methods [13,17]. Furthermore, after that period, toxicity, mutagenicity, and genetic (metagenomic and metatranscriptomic) analyses were conducted.…”

“…The results obtained in different studies advocate the application of either the former [7][8][9] or the latter method [10][11][12]. Numerous microorganisms possess an ability to use hydrocarbons as the sole source of carbon and energy, but only representatives of a few genera, notably Mycolicibacterium (formerly included in Mycobacterium genus), Pseudomonas, and Rhodococcus, are capable of degrading both aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons [13]. Since crude oil is a complex mixture of various hydrocarbons and their derivatives, its biodegradation clearly requires the action of different microorganisms [14].…”

Complete Genome Sequence of Pseudomonas putida BS3701, a Promising Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon-Degrading Strain for Bioremediation Technologies

“…Pseudomonads are known for numerous strains able to degrade various organic compounds, including both aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons ( 1 ). The biodegradation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) is often controlled by plasmids, most of which are found in representatives of the genus Pseudomonas ( 2 ).…”