title: Dominant petroleum hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria in the Archipelago Sea in South-West Finland (Baltic Sea) belong to different taxonomic groups than hydrocarbon degraders in the oceans.
abstract: The natural petroleum hydrocarbon degrading capacity of the Archipelago Sea water in S-W Finland was studied in a microcosm experiment. Pristine and previously oil exposed sites were examined. Bacterial community fingerprinting was performed using terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) and samples from selected microcosms were sequenced. The abundance of PAH degradation genes was measured by quantitative PCR. Bacterial communities in diesel exposed microcosms diverged from control microcosms during the experiment. Gram positive PAH degradation genes dominated at both sites in situ, whereas gram negative PAH degrading genes became enriched in diesel microcosms. The dominant bacterial groups after a 14 days of diesel exposure were different depending on the sampling site, belonging to the class Actinobacteria (32%) at a pristine site and Betaproteobacteria (52%) at a previously oil exposed site. The hydrocarbon degrading bacteria in the Baltic Sea differ from those in the oceans, where most hydrocarbon degraders belong to Gammaproteobacteria.
authors.affiliation: Division of Genetics and Physiology, Department of Biology, University of Turku, FI-20014 Turku, Finland. anna.reunamo@ymparisto.fi
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Reunamo
authors.forename: Lasse
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Riemann
authors.forename: Piia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Leskinen
authors.forename: Kirsten S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Jørgensen
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D001483:Base Sequence; D005387:Finland; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009792:Oceans and Seas; D010578:Petroleum / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism*; D059392:Petroleum Pollution; D010802:Phylogeny; D012623:Seawater / Q000737:chemistry / Q000382:microbiology; D014871:Water Microbiology; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D010578:Petroleum; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical