Evaluation of Genetic Diversity among Pseudomonas citronellolis Strains Isolated from Oily Sludge-Contaminated Sites

Abstract

The diversity among a set of bacterial strains that have the capacity to degrade total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) in soil contaminated with oily sludge (hazardous hydrocarbon waste from oil refineries) was determined. TPH is composed of alkane, aromatics, nitrogen-, sulfur-, and oxygen-containing compound, and asphaltene fractions of crude oil. The 150 bacterial isolates which could degrade TPH were isolated from soil samples obtained from diverse geoclimatic regions of India. All the isolates were biochemically characterized and identified with a Biolog microbial identification system and by 16S rDNA sequencing. Pseudomonas citronellolis predominated among the 150 isolates obtained from six different geographically diverse samplings. Of the isolates, 29 strains of P. citronellolis were selected for evaluating their genetic diversity. This was performed by molecular typing with repetitive sequence (Rep)-based PCR with primer sets ERIC (enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus), REP (repetitive extragenic palindromes), and BOXAIR and PCR-based ribotyping. Strain-specific and unique genotypic fingerprints were distinguished by these molecular typing strategies. The 29 strains of P. citronellolis were separated into 12 distinguishable genotypic groups by Rep-PCR and into seven genomic patterns by PCR-based ribotyping. The genetic diversity of the strains was related to the different geoclimatic isolation sites, type of oily sludge, and age of contamination of the sites. These results indicate that a combination of Rep-PCR fingerprinting and PCR-based ribotyping can be used as a highresolution genomic fingerprinting method for elucidating intraspecies diversity among strains of P. citronellolis.

Functional gene diversity of soil microbial communities from five oil-contaminated fields in China

“…This could be because of unmeasured environmental variables. For instance, it has been reported that the types of oil contaminants and age of site contamination could influence the microbial genetic diversity (Bhattacharya et al, 2003). The composition and structure of hydrocarbons in oil contaminants are highly variable in different oil-contaminated fields, which could affect the microbial functional gene composition.…”

“…Certain hydrocarbon-degrading taxa become dominant in oil-impacted environments because of natural selection resulting from the pressure of oil contaminants (Margesin et al, 2003;Head et al, 2006). Other environmental variables also influence microbial distribution, such as regional climate (Bhattacharya et al, 2003;Maila et al, 2006), soil type and characteristics (Hamamura et al, 2006) and vegetation (Joner et al, 2001). To date, most of the efforts to describe microbial communities in oil-contaminated fields have been focused on phylogenetic composition.…”

Environmental Predictors of Indole Acetic Acid Producing Rhizobacteria at Fly Ash Dumps: Nature-Based Solution for Sustainable Restoration

“…However, the approach to remediate dumps through vegetation development and reduce risks associated with the ash dumps has received little attention (Haynes, 2009;Rau et al, 2009). Most of the restoration programs at the fly ash dumps face bottlenecks of poor knowledge of the relationship between plant-soil feedback and its impact on soil microbial functional diversity (Mohmmed et al, 2001;Bhattacharya et al, 2003;Rau et al, 2009).…”

Microbiological degradation of pentane by immobilized cells of Arthrobacter sp.

“…(Liu et al 2001), Pseudomonas citronellonis (Bhattacharya et al 2003), Pseudomonas oleovorans (Witholt et al 1990), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Belhaj et al 2002), Hormoconis resinae (Solana & Gaylarde 1995), Aspergillus niger (Volke-Sepulveda et al 2003) and three bacterial enriched consortia isolated from polluted areas as described by Okeke & Frankeberger (2003).…”