Incidence of Plasmids in Marine Vibrio spp. Isolated from an Oil Field in the Northwestern Gulf of Mexico

Abstract

Presumptive marine Vibrio spp. were collected from an operational oil field and control site located in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico. Of 440 isolates analyzed for the presence of extrachromosomal deoxyribonucleic acid elements or plasmids by using the cleared lysate and agarose gel techniques, 31% showed distinct plasmid bands on agarose gels. A majority of the plasmids detected were estimated to have molecular masses of 10 × 10 6 or less. Multiple plasmids were observed in approximately half of the plasmid-containing strains. A number of isolates contained plasmids with similar banding and mobility patterns. The oil field area had noticeably more plasmid-containing strains (35 versus 23% in the control site) and a greater number of plasmids per plasmid-containing strain (an average of 2.5 plasmids, versus 1.5 in the control site). Oil field discharges might have resulted in increased plasmid incidence and diversity.

Allogenic succession of marine bacterial communities in response to pharmaceutical waste

“…Yet it is also possible that a shift in dominance from Pseudomonas to Vibrio has occurred in some regions of the temperate and tropical oceans. Such a dominance has been observed in the Chesapeake Bay by Austin et al environment is offered by Sizemore & Colwell (1977) and Hada & Sizemore (1981). Marine vibrios possess a high degree of environmental adaptiveness, which may be directly related to the number and variety of cryptic plasmids carried by a majority of Vibrio isolates examined to date.…”

“…also metabolize short chain volatile fatty acids, alcohols, and aromatic hydrocarbons (Baumann et al 1971), and plasmidcontaining Vibrio spp. have been isolated from Gulf of Mexico oil fields in significantly larger numbers than from non-oil-impacted control areas (Hada & Sizemore 1981). In a study of petroleum degradation by Chesapeake Bay sediment bacteria, Walker et al (1976) found that sediment from an oil polluted area of the bay contained Vibrio spp., Acinetobacter spp., and Pseudomonas spp., representing populations metabolically responsive to petroleum enrichment.…”

Species variation and plasmid incidence among fluorescent Pseudomonas strains isolated from agricultural and industrial soils

“…In soil, bacteria develop specific populations or successions depending on competition for substrate, resistance against abiotic factors, antibiosis, predation, etc. Indeed, several studies have shown that long-term [9,10] and short-term [11,12] stresses such as high temperatures, extremes of pH or chemical pollution often result in altered metabolism, species diversity and plasmid incidence of soil bacterial populations. It is still not clear, however, if some of the metabolic characteristics of fluorescent Pseudomonas populations such as denitrification or the ability to degrade and utilize complex organic matter, have a selective value for their diversity in soils.…”

Gene transfer in the marine environment

“…showed that plasmids were more common in bacteria isolated from an oil field in the Gulf of Mexico than in isolates from a presumably less contaminated control site [28]. There seems to be a general correlation between degree of toxic or other pollution and the incidence of plasmid-carrying bacteria.…”