title: A halotolerant Alcanivorax sp. strain with potential application in saline soil remediation.
abstract: Biodegradation of petroleum compounds in saline environments seems intricate and needs more attention. In this study, tetracosane was used to enrich alkane-degrading bacteria from oil-contaminated saline soils. Among the isolates, strain Qtet3, with the highest 16s rRNA gene sequence similarity to Alcanivorax dieselolei B-5(T), was able to grow at a wide range of NaCl concentrations and was shown by GC analysis to degrade more than 90% of tetracosane in 10 days. This strain has at least two alkB genes and could grow on crude oil and diesel fuel, and utilize various pure aliphatic hydrocarbon substrates (from C(12) to C(34)). Highly hydrophobic cell surfaces and lack of significant surface tension reduction in the media suggest that the main mechanism of the cells for accessing substrate is to attach directly to hydrocarbon particles. Application of this strain for remediating crude oil-contaminated soils irrigated with defined saline water demonstrated that this halotolerant bacterium could survive and grow in saline soils irrigated with NaCl solutions up to 5% w/v, with the highest hydrocarbon degradation of 26.1% observed at 2.5% NaCl. This strain is promising for future industrial applications especially in bioremediation of saline soils and wastes.
authors.affiliation: Biotechnology Department, Faculty of science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Seyed Mohammad Mehdi
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Dastgheib
authors.forename: Mohamad Ali
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Amoozegar
authors.forename: Khosro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Khajeh
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ventosa
mesh_terms: D053521:Alcanivoraceae / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism*; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D006838:Hydrocarbons / Q000378:metabolism; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D012965:Sodium Chloride / Q000378:metabolism*; D012988:Soil Microbiology; D012989:Soil Pollutants / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D006838:Hydrocarbons; D012989:Soil Pollutants; D012965:Sodium Chloride