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Anaerobic Hydrocarbon-Degrading Microorganisms: An Overview

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Handbook of Hydrocarbon and Lipid Microbiology

Abstract:

Anaerobic microorganisms that utilize hydrocarbons became known when aerobic microorganisms with such capacity had been already under study for many decades. Hydrocarbons may be utilized anaerobically with nitrate, iron(III), or sulfate as electron acceptor, under conditions of methanogenesis, or by anoxygenic photosynthesis. The most important degraders of the simplest hydrocarbon, methane, are distinct groups of archaea in association with bacteria that apparently reduce sulfate. Axenic cultures have not been isolated to date. Methane oxidation may be also coupled to denitrification. Degraders of non-methane hydrocarbons are phylogenetically diverse; they are members of the Proteobacteria and Firmicutes. Many species have been isolated in pure cultures. Anaerobic microorganisms utilizing hydrocarbons always exhibit much slower growth than their aerobic counterparts.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Of course, there has been the accumulation of organic compounds that were withdrawn from biodegradation by burial and geothermal transformation, the processes that lead to petroleum and coal

  2. 2.

    Nevertheless, there are still natural compounds which so far appear as inert in the absence of oxygen, prominent examples being lignin and the “heavier” polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

  3. 3.

    The denitrifying strain pCyN1 can degrade (alicyclic) monoterpene alkenes as well as the aromatic monoterpene, p-cymene (see Tables 1 and 2 )

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  1. Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Bremen, Germany

    F. Widdel, K. Knittel & A. Galushko

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  1. F. Widdel
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  1. Environmental Microbiology Laboratory, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Inhoffenstrasse 7, 38124, Braunschweig, Germany

    Kenneth N. Timmis (Professor) (Professor)

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Widdel, F., Knittel, K., Galushko, A. (2010). Anaerobic Hydrocarbon-Degrading Microorganisms: An Overview. In: Timmis, K.N. (eds) Handbook of Hydrocarbon and Lipid Microbiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-77587-4_146

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