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Dynamic of sulphate-reducing microorganisms in petroleum-contaminated marine sediments inhabited by the polychaete Hediste diversicolor

  • DECAPAGE Project: Hydrocarbon degradation in coastal sediments*
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Abstract

The behaviour of sulphate-reducing microbial community was investigated at the oxic–anoxic interface (0–2 cm) of marine sediments when submitted to oil and enhanced bioturbation activities by the addition of Hediste diversicolor. Although total hydrocarbon removal was not improved by the addition of H. diversicolor, terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analyses based on dsrAB (dissimilatory sulphite reductase) genes and transcripts showed different patterns according to the presence of H. diversicolor which favoured the abundance of dsrB genes during the early stages of incubation. Complementary DNA (cDNA) dsrAB libraries revealed that in presence of H. diversicolor, most dsrAB sequences belonged to hydrocarbonoclastic Desulfobacteraceae, suggesting that sulphate-reducing microorganisms (SRMs) may play an active role in hydrocarbon biodegradation in sediments where the reworking activity is enhanced. Furthermore, the presence of dsrAB sequences related to sequences found associated to environments with high dinitrogen fixation activity suggested potential N2 fixation by SRMs in bioturbated-polluted sediments.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the French program ANR DHYVA (project ANR-06-SEST-09) and ANR DECAPAGE (project ANR-CESA-2011-006 01). We would like to thank Jerome Gury and all partners of the DHYVA project for their useful discussions. We acknowledge the Regional Platform for Environmental Microbiology PREMICE supported by the Aquitaine Regional Government Council (France) and the urban community of Pau-Pyrénées (France).

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  1. Equipe Environnement et Microbiologie, Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour, IPREM UMR CNRS 5254, BP 1155, 64013, Pau Cedex, France

    Magalie Stauffert, Cristiana Cravo-Laureau & Robert Duran

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  1. Magalie Stauffert
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  2. Cristiana Cravo-Laureau
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Correspondence to Cristiana Cravo-Laureau.

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Stauffert, M., Cravo-Laureau, C. & Duran, R. Dynamic of sulphate-reducing microorganisms in petroleum-contaminated marine sediments inhabited by the polychaete Hediste diversicolor . Environ Sci Pollut Res 22, 15273–15284 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-3624-y

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