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A newly isolated strain of Serratia sp. from an oil spillage site of Assam shows excellent bioremediation potential

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Abstract

A hydrocarbon-degrading strain was isolated from a petroleum oil-contaminated site which was identified on the basis of 16S rDNA gene sequencing as a member of the genus Serratia. The isolate reduced surface tension of petroleum oil supplemented medium by 48.35% with respect to control after 7 days of treatment. Fluorescence microscopy revealed that its chemotaxis was towards hydrocarbon. The isolate degraded 87.54 and 85.48% of diesel and kerosene in liquid culture, respectively, after 28 day incubation at 37 ± 2 °C. The ex situ pilot scale bioremediation experiment in which artificially contaminated soil (10 and 20% v/w kerosene) was treated for 7 days showed a germination rate of Vigna radiate seeds of 52% and 72%, respectively. Interestingly, a germination rate of 31% was obtained with the heavily contaminated soil samples collected from the oil spillage site after 20 days of bioremediation treatment. The presence of υCH3 (asymmetric stretching), υC=C (stretch), and υC–C (stretch) in the crude biosurfactant produced by the isolate was revealed by FTIR analysis, and emulsification index (E24) was found 60 and 56.6%, respectively, against diesel and kerosene oil. The non-cytotoxicity nature of the biosurfactant also supports its potential application in field trial.

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Acknowledgements

Authors acknowledge DST-Govt. of India and Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research, Govt. of Tunisia (Grant No. DST/INT/TUNISIA/P-02/2017) for funding. Authors also acknowledge DBT-HRD, Govt. of India (Grant No. BT/04/NE/2009) and DBT-BIF facility (BT/BI/13/035/2017) for providing necessary infrastructure facility to Centre for Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, Dibrugarh University; DeLCON DBT-Electronic Library Consortium facility to Dibrugarh University; Dept. of Chemistry for providing FTIR facility; Departmental Animal Cell Culture Laboratory, Centre for Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, DU; Azyme Biosciences Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore for GLC analysis; and Pentavalent Biosciences Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore for providing sequencing services for bacterial identification.

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  1. Kanika Agarwal and Ankita Khataniar have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, Dibrugarh University, Dibrugarh, 786004, India

    Debajit Borah, Kanika Agarwal & Ankita Khataniar

  2. Department of Petroleum Technology, Dibrugarh University, Dibrugarh, 786004, India

    Debasish Konwar & Subrata Borgohain Gogoi

  3. Department of Geosciences Water, and Environment, National Engineering School of Sfax (ENIS), University of Sfax, BP 1173, 3038, Sfax, Tunisia

    Monem Kallel

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  1. Debajit Borah
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Correspondence to Debajit Borah.

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Borah, D., Agarwal, K., Khataniar, A. et al. A newly isolated strain of Serratia sp. from an oil spillage site of Assam shows excellent bioremediation potential. 3 Biotech 9, 283 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13205-019-1820-7

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