title: [Diversity of oil-degrading bacteria isolated form the Indian Ocean sea surface].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  In order to investigate the diversity of oil-degrading bacteria in the surface seawater across the India Ocean, and to obtain new oil-degrading bacteria.
  
  
  METHODS
  Potential oil-degrading bacteria were selected out via 1:1 mixture of diesel and crude oil as sole carbon source. Meanwhile, the community structure of 13 enrichments was analyzed by polymerase chain reaction with denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE).
  
  
  RESULTS
  We obtained 51 unique strains of 29 genera after screening via morphological, physiological, biochemical and 16S rRNA analyses. They mainly belonged to a and gamma-Proteobacteria. The four genera Alcanivorax (accounting for 18%), Novosphingobium (10%), Marinobacter (6%) and Thalassospira (6%) were the most predominant bacteria. Ecological analyses showed that the bacteria had high diversity with Shannon-Winner index (H) of 4.57968, and distributed even with Evenness index (E) as 0.8664771. Then Further experiments revealed oil-degrading capability of 49 strains. In addition, our investigation revealed oil-degrading ability of genera Sinomonas, Knoellia and Mesoflavibacter for the first time. DGGE fingerprint patterns indicated that the genus Alcanivorax was an important oil-degrading bacteria in the surface seawater across the India Ocean.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study demonstrated a high diversity of the oil-degradation bacteria in the surface seawater of Indian Ocean, these bacteria are of potential in bioremediation of marine oil pollution.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Marine Biogenetic Resources, Third Institute of Oceanography State Oceanic Administration, Xiamen 361005, China. raymond_258@126.com
authors.forename: Changliang
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Zongze
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Shao
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D058645:Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis; D005843:Geography; D019156:Indian Ocean; D010578:Petroleum / Q000382:microbiology*; D010802:Phylogeny
chemical_list: D010578:Petroleum