Genomics for the characterization of the mechanisms of microbial strains in degrading petroleum pollutants.

Abstract

Four petroleum-tolerant bacteria, namely, Pseudomonas hibiscicola, Enterobacter hormaechei, Rhizobium pusense and Pseudomonas japonica were isolated. These strains showed excellent performance in the remediation of petroleum contamination with degradation percentages of 26.13%, 26.47%, 32.27%, and 18.74% for petroleum hydrocarbons, 29.63%, 70.11%, 88.38%, and 67.03% for n-docosane, and 61.00%, 96.36%, 98.00%, and 67.01% for fluorene. Accordingly, the strain of Rhizobium pusense was used to further study its underlying degradation mechanism. N-docosane could be metabolised through the pathway of subterminal oxidation by Rhizobium pusense, while the main pathway for fluorene metabolism is the meta-cleavage. R. pusense contains 10 genes that are involved in the synthetic of biosurfactants and 71 genes that are involved in the metabolism of petroleum hydrocarbons and organic pollutants, such as hydrocarbons, toluene, xylene, ethylbenzene and naphthalene. This study was the first to determine that concerning the metabolism ability and metabolic genes of R. pusense for petroleum pollutant degradation, which is important for understanding the bioremediation mechanism of petroleum pollution.