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A halotolerant Alcanivorax sp. strain with potential application in saline soil remediation

  • Applied Microbial and Cell Physiology
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Abstract

Biodegradation of petroleum compounds in saline environments seems intricate and needs more attention. In this study, tetracosane was used to enrich alkane-degrading bacteria from oil-contaminated saline soils. Among the isolates, strain Qtet3, with the highest 16s rRNA gene sequence similarity to Alcanivorax dieselolei B-5T, was able to grow at a wide range of NaCl concentrations and was shown by GC analysis to degrade more than 90% of tetracosane in 10 days. This strain has at least two alkB genes and could grow on crude oil and diesel fuel, and utilize various pure aliphatic hydrocarbon substrates (from C12 to C34). Highly hydrophobic cell surfaces and lack of significant surface tension reduction in the media suggest that the main mechanism of the cells for accessing substrate is to attach directly to hydrocarbon particles. Application of this strain for remediating crude oil-contaminated soils irrigated with defined saline water demonstrated that this halotolerant bacterium could survive and grow in saline soils irrigated with NaCl solutions up to 5% w/v, with the highest hydrocarbon degradation of 26.1% observed at 2.5% NaCl. This strain is promising for future industrial applications especially in bioremediation of saline soils and wastes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biotechnology Department, Faculty of science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

    Seyed Mohammad Mehdi Dastgheib

  2. Extremophiles Laboratory, Department of Microbiology, School of Biology, College of Science, University of Tehran, P. O. Box 14155-6455, Tehran, Iran

    Mohamad Ali Amoozegar

  3. Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Biological Science, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

    Khosro Khajeh

  4. Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Sevilla, Seville, Spain

    Antonio Ventosa

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  1. Seyed Mohammad Mehdi Dastgheib
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  2. Mohamad Ali Amoozegar
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  3. Khosro Khajeh
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  4. Antonio Ventosa
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Correspondence to Mohamad Ali Amoozegar.

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Dastgheib, S.M.M., Amoozegar, M.A., Khajeh, K. et al. A halotolerant Alcanivorax sp. strain with potential application in saline soil remediation. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 90, 305–312 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-010-3049-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-010-3049-6

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