Community of Hydrocarbon-Oxidizing Bacteria in Petroleum Products on the Example of TS-1 Jet Fuel and AI-95 Gasoline

Abstract

It was shown that the studied petroleum products, kerosene and gasoline, contain microfloccules of heterogeneous microbial biofilms, the cells of which are integrated in a polymer matrix containing acidic polysaccharides. Thirteen bacterial strains were microbiologically isolated from petroleum products, and their taxonomy was identified via analysis of the 16S rRNA sequence. Kerosene was characterized by a diverse bacterial composition, including the following genera: Sphingobacterium, Alcaligenes, Rhodococcus, and Deinococcus. The gasoline bacterial community included only two genera: Bacillus and Paenibacillus. Representatives of the Deinococcus genus that are capable of growing on hydrocarbons were isolated from fuels for the first time. Strains isolated from gasoline (Bacillus safensis Bi13 and Bacillus sp. Bi14) proved to be the most effective biodegraders of all n-alkanes, isoalkanes, cycloalkanes, alkenes, and aromatic hydrocarbons, whereas the strain Rhodococcus erythropolis Bi6, which was isolated from kerosene, effectively decomposed only n-alkanes and trimethylbenzene. Both types of the studied petroleum products contained hydrocarbonoxidizing communities, some members of which were more active in hydrocarbon biodegradation, while others were capable of producing biosurfactants and compounds with emulsifying activity (Deinococcus sp. Bi7) or had increased (well above average) cell-wall hydrophobicity (Sphingobacterium sp. Bi5 from kerosene; Bacillus pumilus Bi12 from gasoline). The indicated properties of the studied strains make them promising for use in bioremediation.

Activity of alkanmonooxygenase <i>alk</i>B gene in strains of hydrocarbon-oxidizing bacteria isolated from petroleum products

“…The data on the presence of alkB family genes in the studied bacterial strains only partially agreed with the data on their ability to grow on liquid and solid media in the presence of 1 % n-alkanes with different carbon chains length (Shapiro et al, 2021). Thus, strains Sphingobacterium mizutaii Bi9, Bacillus pumilus Bi12; Bacillus safensis Bi13; Bacillus sp.…”

“…Previously, strains of hydrocarbon-oxidizing bacteria were isolated from contaminated samples of petroleum products (TS-1 jet fuel and AI-95 gasoline), identified and characterized (Shapiro et al, 2021). 9 strains of hydrocarbon-oxidizing bacteria were isolated, described and identified from TS-1 fuel, and 4 strains were isolated from AI-95 gasoline.…”

“…At the same time, bacterial strains isolated from gasoline AI-95 -Bacillus safensis Bi13; Bacillus sp. Bi14, in which the alkB gene was not detected, used pentadecane, octadecane and hexadecane of a model mixture by more than 80 % (Shapiro et al, 2021). In this regard, a quantitative analysis of the number of DNA copies contain-ing the functional alkanmonooxygenase gene in all isolated strains of hydrocarbon-oxidizing bacteria was carried out.…”

“…In the current study, 13 strains of hydrocarbon-oxidizing bacteria isolated from TS-1 jet fuel and AI-95 gasoline (Shapiro et al, 2021) were used. The sequences of the fragment of the 16S rRNA gene of isolated strains of hydrocarbon-oxidizing bacteria are deposited in the Genbank international database (Table 1).…”

“…DNA isolation was carried out after 7 days of cultivation of hydrocarbon-oxidizing bacteria strains on the Rich medium. To isolate bacterial DNA, the Thermo Scientific™ MagJET™ Plant Genomic DNA Kit was used as described earlier (Shapiro et al, 2021).…”