Degradation potential of alkanes by diverse oil-degrading bacteria from deep-sea sediments of Haima cold seep areas, South China Sea

Abstract

Marine oil spills are a significant concern worldwide, destroying the ecological environment and threatening the survival of marine life. Various oil-degrading bacteria have been widely reported in marine environments in response to marine oil pollution. However, little information is known about culturable oil-degrading bacteria in cold seep of the deep-sea environments, which are rich in hydrocarbons. This study enriched five oil-degrading consortia from sediments collected from the Haima cold seep areas of the South China Sea. Parvibaculum, Erythrobacter, Acinetobacter, Alcanivorax, Pseudomonas, Marinobacter, Halomonas, and Idiomarina were the dominant genera. Further results of bacterial growth and degradation ability tests indicated seven efficient alkane-degrading bacteria belonging to Acinetobacter, Alcanivorax, Kangiella, Limimaricola, Marinobacter, Flavobacterium, and Paracoccus, whose degradation rates were higher in crude oil (70.3–78.0%) than that in diesel oil (62.7–66.3%). From the view of carbon chain length, alkane degradation rates were medium chains > long chains > short chains. In addition, Kangiella aquimarina F7, Acinetobacter venetianus F1, Limimaricola variabilis F8, Marinobacter nauticus J5, Flavobacterium sediminis N3, and Paracoccus sediminilitoris N6 were first identified as oil-degrading bacteria from deep-sea environments. This study will provide insight into the bacterial community structures and oil-degrading bacterial diversity in the Haima cold seep areas, South China Sea, and offer bacterial resources to oil bioremediation applications.

Insights into the Physicochemical Parameters, Microbial Community Structure, and Functional Variations in Biodegradation of N-Alkane Derivatives from Fischer–Tropsch Wastewater

“…Classified sequence reads at the phyla level revealed the four dominant phyla as Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and Actinobacteria, which have all been reported to possess biodegradation capabilities of hydrocarbons [51]. For both water and sediment microorganisms, Proteobacteria displayed a relatively high abundance of up to 81.04% (in propanol batch culture) for water microorganisms and 78.44% (in butyric acid batch culture) for sediment microorganisms after the first day of biodegradation (day 1).…”

Hwangdonia lutea sp. nov., isolated from the Haima cold seep, South China Sea

“…Members of the family Flavobacteriaceae contain menaquinone 6 as the solar respiratory quinone, have G+C contents ranging from 32 to 37 mol% [3], and are distributed in diverse marine environments such as deep-sea seamount [4], coastal sediment [5], Antarctic seawater [6], marine plants [7] and animals [8]. Submarine cold seeps [9], representing a specific marine environment, release various hydrocarbons through fluids ranging from marine sediment to sea water [10]. The hydrocarbon-rich fluids support the ecological system and form microbial communities characterized by high density and unique diversity in the cold seep [10,11].…”