Bacterial succession and co‐occurrence patterns of an enriched marine microbial community during light crude oil degradation in a batch reactor

Abstract

Aims The aim of this study was to investigate the dynamic changes in the bacterial structure and potential interactions of an acclimatized marine microbial community during a light crude oil degradation experiment. Methods and Results The bacterial community effectively removed 76·49% of total petroleum hydrocarbons after 30 days, as evidenced by GC‐FID and GC‐MS analyses. Short‐chain alkanes and specific aromatic compounds were completely degraded within the first 6 days. High‐throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA gene indicated that the starting bacterial community was mainly composed by Marinobacter and more than 30 non‐dominant genera. Bacterial succession was dependent on the hydrocarbon uptake with Alcanivorax becoming dominant during the highest degradation period. Sparse correlations for compositional data algorithm revealed one operational taxonomic unit (OTU) of Muricauda and an assembly of six OTUs of Alcanivorax dieselolei and Alcanivorax hongdengensis as critical keystone components for the consortium network maintenance and stability. Conclusions This work exhibits a stabilized marine bacterial consortium with the capability to efficiently degrade light crude oil in 6 days, under laboratory conditions. Successional and interaction patterns were observed in response to hydrocarbon consumption, highlighting potential interactions between Alcanivorax and keystone non‐dominant OTUs over time. Significance and Impact of the Study Our results contribute to the understanding of interactions and potential roles of specific members of hydrocarbonoclastic marine bacterial communities, which will be useful for further bioaugmentation studies concerning the associations between indigenous and introduced micro‐organisms.

Bacteria From the Southern Gulf of Mexico: Baseline, Diversity, Hydrocarbon-Degrading Potential and Future Applications

“…Natural leaks of oil are widely distributed in the GoM (MacDonald et al, 2015), suggesting that it has a basal level of HDB that can grow to address large-scale oil spills. This hypothesis was validated during the oil spill of the DWH and in later studies, in which metagenomic analysis and isolated cultures showed significant enrichment of bacterial populations related to Oceanospirillum, Cycloclasticus, Colwellia, Pseudoalteromonas, Rhodobacterales, methylotrophs, Alcanivorax, Oleiphilus, Oleispira, Thalassolituus, Oceanospirillales, Marinobacter, Acinetobacter, Pseudomonas and Planomicrobium (Hazen et al, 2010;Kostka et al, 2011;Redmond and Valentine, 2012;Mason et al, 2012;Dubansky et al, 2013;Kimes et al, 2013;Mason et al, 2014;Kleindienst et al, 2015;Orcutt et al, 2017;García-Cruz et al, 2018;Muriel-Millán et al, 2019;Uribe-Flores et al, 2019;Cerqueda-García et al, 2020;Rodríguez-Salazar et al, 2020).…”

Enhancing the degradation of mixed polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon and medium‐chain‐length polyhydroxyalkanoate production by mixed bacterial cultures using modified repeated batch fermentation

“…However, the bacterial community removed 76·49% of total petroleum hydrocarbons after 30 days (Uribe‐Flores et al . ). Santisi et al .…”

“…A growing global environmental awareness has prompted an increased interest in the development of more effective technologies for the remediation of contaminated industrial locations and effluents (Uribe-Flores et al 2019). Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) have attracted attention because of their well-known toxicity, persistence and carcinogenic and mutagenic properties (Di Gregorio et al 2014Ruffini Castiglione et al 2016;Kafouris et al 2019).…”

Molecular biological methods in environmental engineering

“…Uribe‐Flores et al (2019) studied the changes in community structure during the degradation of light crude oil by marine microorganisms adapted to the environment by means of multigenomics. The results show that with the degradation of light crude oil, the marine microbial community succession occurs.…”