Microbial biofilms on aviation fuel system materials
Materials used in aviation fuel systems were incubated in microcosms with a fuel:water mixture. The coupons were transferred to new microcosms at intervals to replicate the effect of fuel consumption and water drainage. High throughput sequencing of 16S (bacterial) and ITS (fungal) sequences were used to determine microbes which preferentially grew in fuel or aqueous phases, and their prevalence on the different material coupons tested.