Professional Documents
Culture Documents
2:105-111 (2012)
Abstract:
Extensive hydrocarbons exploration activities often result in the pollution of the environment, which could lead to disastrous consequences for the biotic and abiotic components of the ecosystem if not restored. Remediation of hydrocarbon-contaminated system could be achieved by either physicochemical or biological methods. The present work was undertaken to assess, isolate and identify the hydrocarbon degrading bacteria associated with environmental samples collected from soil near petrol, diesel pumps and water samples from Husain sagar in Hyderabad and chlorine water from swimming pool. The samples were analyzed microbiologically using standard microbiological techniques. These organisms were further studied to determine their biodegrading activities on hydrocarbons (diesel and petrol) as the sole carbon source using enrichment medium. The microbial growths were determined using calorimeter blanked at 595 nm. The test on the degrading activity of isolates on hydrocarbon from environmental samples revealed that bacteria Bacillus megaterium, Bacillus cereus, Micrococcus luteus, Staphylococcus aureus, Lactobacillus acidophillus, Neisseria flavescence and Corynebacterium xerosis were the potent degraders of hydrocarbons (petrol and diesel). The identified bacteria by biochemical tests were further confirmed by 16s rDNA sequencing. The ability of these isolates to degrade hydrocarbons is clear evidence that their genome harbors the relevant degrading gene. These bacteria were screened for the presence of one of the hydrocarbon degrading enzyme catechol 2, 3 dioxygenase by DNA isolation, PCR amplification of gene using specific primers and sequencing of gene (C23O). The organisms with catechol 2, 3 dioxygenase enzyme were identified as Bacillus megaterium, Bacillus cereus, Micrococcus luteus, & Lactobacillus acidophillus with an 216bp amplification using C23O specific primers. The sequence has similarity about 90% to catechol 2, 3 dioxygenase gene. Keywords: Isolation, Identification, Biodegradation, Soil, Waste water, Diesel and Petrol.
INTRODUCTION
Many microorganisms have the ability to utilize hydrocarbons as sole sources of carbon as energy for metabolic activities .and these micro organisms are Omni present and widely distributed in the nature. The microbial utilization of hydrocarbons depends on the chemical nature of the compounds within the petroleum mixture and on environmental determinants [1]. Hydrocarbons enter into the environment through waste disposal, accidental spills, as pesticides and via losses during transport, storage, and use. Hydrocarbon (petroleum)degrading bacteria are reportedly ubiquitous in the environment and were widely distributed in marine, freshwater, soil habitats and their use in bioremediation of hydrocarbon-contaminated soils, which exploits their ability to degrade and/or detoxify organic contaminants, has been established as an efficient, economical, versatile and environmentally sound treatment [4,5,]Due to extensive increase in environmental pollution, numerous biodegradative bacteria have been isolated in the past, and their physiology, biochemistry, and genetics have been Intensively studied. Biodegradation, which is the destruction of organic compounds by microorganisms, is carried out largely by diverse bacterial populations, mostly by Pseudomonas species [9, 14] The extensive use of petroleum products leads to the contamination of almost all compartments of the environment, and biodegradation of the hydrocarbons by natural populations of microorganisms has been reported to be the main process acting in the depuration of hydrocarbon-polluted environments [10], the mechanism of which has been extensively studied and reviewed [3]. The fuel is a complex mixture of normal, branched and cyclic alkanes, and aromatic compounds obtained from the middle-distillate fraction during petroleum separation. Bioremediation process rely on the ability of microorganisms present naturally which are highly
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Results and Discussion: Isolation and Identification of the Bacteria from Wastewater, Swimming Pool and Contaminated Soil
The bacteria were isolated from three different types of samples on nutrient agar medium. Further the samples were screened for the presence of hydrocarbon degrading bacteria on mineral salt medium with 1% of the hydrocarbons as the sole carbon source namely petrol and diesel individually. Hydrocarbons are needed as a carbon source but it can be toxic to microorganisms due to the solvent effects of diesel and petrol that could destroy bacterial cell membrane. Many biodegradation studies were reported on diesel are carried out using lesser diesel concentrations ranging from 0.5 to 1.5%. But M.Y Shukor et al., (2009) reported degradation of diesel by microorganisms at 3.5% and 6% diesel by Kwapisz et al., (2008). It has been found that degradation is generally unfavorable at [7, 15] concentrations higher than 1 or 1.5% . Number of colonies on mineral salt medium is lower when compared to the mother plate without hydrocarbons (Fig 1). This result showed that the bacteria grown on enriched medium were able to degrade the hydrocarbon source. Gram stain and biochemical
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Bacillus cereus respectively. These results highlight the different group of bacterial genera involved in hydrocarbon degradation. Many scientists studied the petroleum degradation by various Pseudomonas species and by Bacillus species (2, 12). Boboye, B et al., (2010) reported the degradation of hydrocarbons form petroleum polluted areas by Staphylococcus aureus, Micrococcus luteus, Lactobacillus acidophillus and Bacillus species. Likewise Ojo (2006) reported hydrocarbons-utilizers in his research such as Bacillus megaterium, Pseudomonas putida, Micrococcus luteus, Bacillus brevis, Bacillus pumilis and Enterobacter aerogenes. Fig 2: DNA isolation from the isolated hydrocarbon degrading bacteria
Org-organism; +ve positive; -ve negative; A- Acid producer G- gas producer Fig 1: Growth of bacterial colonies on NAM and MSM with petrol.
Fig.2a
Fig.2b
It is evident from this study that when the environment was contaminated with petroleum and diesel components the proportion of hydrocarbondegrading microorganisms increases rapidly. High numbers of certain hydrocarbon-degrading microorganisms from an environment implies that those organisms are the active degraders of that environment [12]. The presence of oil-degrading organisms in the polluted soil and water is clear indication that the indigenous microbes were carrying out their metabolic activity. The activities of these microorganisms could be responsible for the bioremediation of the environment.
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4 5 6 7
Amplification of Hydrocarbon Degrading Enzyme Catechol 2, 3 Dioxygenase Coding Gene The ability of an organism to degrade a specific substrate is clear evidence that its genome harbors the relevant degrading gene [11]. The previous studies [8] on hydrocarbon degradation by bacteria reveal that catechol 2, 3 dioxygenase is the one of the enzyme that involved in hydrocarbon degradation. The presence of this C23O enzyme in these identified hydrocarbon degrading bacteria by amplifying the gene coding the enzyme using C23O specific primers the primers used, gave the 216bp PCR product in three of the isolates. There is no amplification in the rest of the isolates indicating the absence of catechol 2, 3 dioxygenase enzyme activities for the hydrocarbon degradation. This indicates that C23O gene is involved in hydrocarbon degradation for Bacillus megaterium, Micrococcus luteus and Lactobacillus acidophilus bacteria isolated from the wastewater and the contaminated soils. However, it is true that the presence of a single gene does not ensure that the entire catabolic pathway will be present or that these genes will be expressed. The amplified product was sequenced and the aligned sequence gave 97% similarity with the known C23O gene sequence of Pseudomonas species
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Fig.5: Amplification of catechol 2,3, dioxygenase gene in seven identified hydrocarbon degrading bacteria. Lane1shows1Kbladder, Lane2:Micrococcus.luteus, Lane3:Bacillus.megaterium, Lane4:Staphylococcus.aureus,, Lane5: Lactobacillus acidophilus.
The above Table Shows the Optical Density of bacteria grown in Diesel containing Media Fig: 3 Graph showing the growth curve (O.D values) of bacteria in hydrocarbon (diesel) degrading broth for a period of 15 days of incubation
Series 1: Staphylococcus aureus, Series 2: Neisseria flavescence, Series 3: Bacillus cereus, Series 4: Bacillus megaterium, Sereis 5: Corynebacterium xerosis Fig: 4 Graph showing the growth curve (O.D values) of bacteria in hydrocarbon (petrol) degrading broth for a period of 15 days of incubation
Conclusion: Bioremediation is one of the most rapidly growing areas of environmental biotechnology, which has been used for the cleaning up of pollutants. This is because of its low costs and its public acceptability. Degradation of hydrocarbons by environmental microflorae involves microorganisms having specialized metabolic capacities. In polluted environments, specialized microorganisms are abundant because of the adaptation of the microflorae to pollutant. It is evident from this study that, hydrocarbon degrading organisms are ubiquitous in environment and they can be isolated from hydrocarbon polluted sites and waste water. It has also been shown that four bacterial strains isolated from waste water and seven bacterial strains from contaminated soil can be good petrol and diesel degraders. This study can focus on more cost effective applications of native bacterial strains for petrol and diesel degradation at large scale in industries, where it pose an alarming problem due to its detrimental health effects on different organisms and human beings. The degrading ability demonstrated by the microorganisms is a clear indication that they possess a gene that is used in hydrocarbon degradation. This study revealed that catechol 2, 3 dioxygenase gene was present in three
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