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Isolation and degradation potential of a cold-adapted oil/PAH-degrading marine bacterial consortium from Kongsfjorden (Arctic region)

  • Environmental Changes in Arctic
  • Published:
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Abstract

The temperature is one of the most important factors determining the success of bioremediation processes in marine environment. This study focused on the isolation and characterization of marine hydrocarbons-degrading bacteria from a cold region. Seawater samples were collected in the Ny-Ålesund Harbor and in the proximity of Kronebreen glacier (Kongsfjorden, Svalbard), and immediately enriched with nutrients and hydrocarbons as sole source of carbon. Samples were maintained at 4 °C for 90 days. Most probable number analyses showed a high number of hydrocarbons degraders from the samples collected in the harbor, while we were not able to detect hydrocarbon degraders in samples collected in the sea-ice region. The isolation was carried out at 4 and 15 °C, and a list of 38 strains was obtained in pure culture using both oil and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons as substrates. The selection inferred by the two different substrates was evident as oil favorites the growth of strains belonging to the γ-proteobacteria: Pseudoalteromonas, Marinobacter, Oleispira, and Alcanivorax genera while naphthalene and phenanthrene selected mostly α-proteobacteria: Sphingopyxis, Rhodobacter, and Hyphomonas genera. The isolated have been further selected for the formulation of a microbial consortium to test their potential to degrade both oil and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons at low temperature. Results demonstrated that the consortium was very active at 15 °C at which the almost 90 % of TPH were degraded; at 4 °C we were able to detect almost 80 % of degradation. Moreover, parallel single culture of each strain was not as efficient as in consortium.

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Acknowledgments

This work was funded by the European Community Project KILL-SPILL (FP7-KBBE-2012.3.5-01-4 Project 312139 “Integrated Biotechnological Solutions for Combating Marine Oil Spills”). Moreover, we want to thank Maurizio Catalfamo for the technical assistance during hydrocarbons analyses.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Coastal Marine Environment (IAMC-CNR), Sp.ta S. Raineri 86, 98122, Messina, Italy

    Francesca Crisafi, Laura Giuliano, Michail M. Yakimov, Maurizio Azzaro & Renata Denaro

Authors
  1. Francesca Crisafi
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  2. Laura Giuliano
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  3. Michail M. Yakimov
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  4. Maurizio Azzaro
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  5. Renata Denaro
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Correspondence to Renata Denaro.

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This peer-reviewed article is a result of the multi and interdisciplinary research activities based at the Arctic station “Dirigibile Italia”, coordinated by the “Dipartimento Scienze del Sistema Terra e Tecnologie per l’Ambiente” of the National Research Council of Italy.

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Crisafi, F., Giuliano, L., Yakimov, M.M. et al. Isolation and degradation potential of a cold-adapted oil/PAH-degrading marine bacterial consortium from Kongsfjorden (Arctic region). Rend. Fis. Acc. Lincei 27 (Suppl 1), 261–270 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12210-016-0550-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12210-016-0550-6

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