title: Occurrence of diverse alkane hydroxylase alkB genes in indigenous oil-degrading bacteria of Baltic Sea surface water.
abstract: Formation of specific oil degrading bacterial communities in diesel fuel, crude oil, heptane and hexadecane supplemented microcosms of the Baltic Sea surface water samples was revealed. The 475 sequences from constructed alkane hydroxylase alkB gene clone libraries were grouped into 30 OPFs. The two largest groups were most similar to Pedobacter sp. (245 from 475) and Limnobacter sp. (112 from 475) alkB gene sequences. From 56 alkane-degrading bacterial strains 41 belonged to the Pseudomonas spp. and 8 to the Rhodococcus spp. having redundant alkB genes. Together 68 alkB gene sequences were identified. These genes grouped into 20 OPFs, half of them being specific only to the isolated strains. Altogether 543 diverse alkB genes were characterized in the brackish Baltic Sea water; some of them representing novel lineages having very low sequence identities with corresponding genes of the reference strains.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Department of Genetics, University of Tartu, 23 Riia Street, Tartu 51010, Estonia. Electronic address: signe.viggor@ut.ee.
authors.forename: Signe
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Viggor
authors.affiliation: Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Department of Genetics, University of Tartu, 23 Riia Street, Tartu 51010, Estonia.
authors.forename: Merike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jõesaar
authors.affiliation: Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Department of Genetics, University of Tartu, 23 Riia Street, Tartu 51010, Estonia.
authors.forename: Eve
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Vedler
authors.affiliation: Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Department of Genetics, University of Tartu, 23 Riia Street, Tartu 51010, Estonia.
authors.forename: Riinu
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kiiker
authors.affiliation: Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Department of Genetics, University of Tartu, 23 Riia Street, Tartu 51010, Estonia.
authors.forename: Liis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Pärnpuu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Department of Genetics, University of Tartu, 23 Riia Street, Tartu 51010, Estonia.
authors.forename: Ain
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Heinaru
mesh_terms: D000473:Alkanes / Q000378:metabolism; D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism*; D042926:Cytochrome P-450 CYP4A / Q000235:genetics*; D005742:Gasoline; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D010578:Petroleum / Q000378:metabolism; D010802:Phylogeny; D012240:Rhodococcus / Q000235:genetics; D012623:Seawater / Q000382:microbiology*
chemical_list: D000473:Alkanes; D005742:Gasoline; D010578:Petroleum; D042926:Cytochrome P-450 CYP4A; C007932:n-hexadecane
keywords: Alkane hydroxylase; Baltic Sea; alkB gene; n-alkane degrading bacterial strains