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Identification and analysis of polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)—biodegrading bacterial strains from refinery soil of India

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Abstract

Polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) utilizing bacteria were isolated from soils of seven sites of Mathura refinery, India. Twenty-six bacterial strains with different morphotypes were isolated. These strains were acclimatized to utilize a mixture of four polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, i.e., anthracene, fluorene, phenanthrene, and pyrene, each at 50 mg/L concentration as sole carbon source. Out of total isolates, 15 potent isolates were subjected to 16S rDNA sequencing and identified as a member of diverse genera, i.e., Bacillus, Acinetobacter, Stenotrophomonas, Alcaligenes, Lysinibacillus, Brevibacterium, Serratia, and Streptomyces. Consortium of four promising isolates (Acinetobacter, Brevibacterium, Serratia, and Streptomyces) were also investigated for bioremediation of PAH mixture. This consortium was proved to be efficient PAH degrader resulting in 40–70 % degradation of PAH within 7 days. Results of this study indicated that these genera may play an active role in bioremediation of PAHs.

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Acknowledgments

The financial assistance provided by the Indian council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi through AMAAS network project is gratefully acknowledged. The authors are also grateful to the division of Microbiology and Agricultural chemicals for providing the necessary facilities to undertake this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Microbiology, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, 110012, India

    Priyanka Chaudhary, Richa Sharma, A. K. Saxena & Lata Nain

  2. National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, Haryana, India

    Harmesh Sahay

  3. International Centre for Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology, New Delhi, India

    Alok Kumar Pandey

  4. Division of Agricultural Chemicals, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India

    Shashi Bala Singh

Authors
  1. Priyanka Chaudhary
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  2. Harmesh Sahay
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  3. Richa Sharma
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  4. Alok Kumar Pandey
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  5. Shashi Bala Singh
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  6. A. K. Saxena
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  7. Lata Nain
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Correspondence to Lata Nain.

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Chaudhary, P., Sahay, H., Sharma, R. et al. Identification and analysis of polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)—biodegrading bacterial strains from refinery soil of India. Environ Monit Assess 187, 391 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-015-4617-0

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