TY - JOUR
T1 - Emergence of hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria in crude oil-contaminated soil in a hyperarid ecosystem
T2 - Effect of phosphate addition and augmentation with nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria on oil bioremediation
AU - Nejidat, Ali
AU - Meshulam, Mor
AU - Diaz-Reck, Damiana
AU - Ronen, Zeev
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2023/3/1
Y1 - 2023/3/1
N2 - Hyperarid hot deserts impose limiting conditions for microbial activity, thus delaying crude oil biodegradation resulting from accidental spills. This study examined the emergence of oil-degrading bacterial species in the soil of a hyperarid area in the southern Negev desert, Israel, which was exposed to a major oil spill. Amplicon sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene showed dominance of the phyla Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria in both contaminated and control soils. Significant differences were seen in the abundance of the phylum Firmicutes. Classes Actinobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria and Bacilli dominated the oil-contaminated soil. Bacterial species capable of degrading aromatic and aliphatic oil constituents were isolated from the contaminated soil. Contaminated soil microcosms were amended separately with nitrogen, phosphorus, or nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria (NFC) biomass; the highest reduction in total petroleum hydrocarbons was observed in the phosphorus-supplemented soil. The abundance of alkB gene, encoding alkane monooxygenase, increased significantly in the control, NFC and phosphate treatments, but not in the nitrogen treatment. However, nahA abundance (coding for naphthalene dioxygenase) was only considerably increased with the phosphorus amendment. While nitrogen amendment via NFC bioaugmentation is a sustainable and novel biostimulation method, phosphorus amendment significantly accelerates the biodegradation of crude oil under extremely arid conditions.
AB - Hyperarid hot deserts impose limiting conditions for microbial activity, thus delaying crude oil biodegradation resulting from accidental spills. This study examined the emergence of oil-degrading bacterial species in the soil of a hyperarid area in the southern Negev desert, Israel, which was exposed to a major oil spill. Amplicon sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene showed dominance of the phyla Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria in both contaminated and control soils. Significant differences were seen in the abundance of the phylum Firmicutes. Classes Actinobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria and Bacilli dominated the oil-contaminated soil. Bacterial species capable of degrading aromatic and aliphatic oil constituents were isolated from the contaminated soil. Contaminated soil microcosms were amended separately with nitrogen, phosphorus, or nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria (NFC) biomass; the highest reduction in total petroleum hydrocarbons was observed in the phosphorus-supplemented soil. The abundance of alkB gene, encoding alkane monooxygenase, increased significantly in the control, NFC and phosphate treatments, but not in the nitrogen treatment. However, nahA abundance (coding for naphthalene dioxygenase) was only considerably increased with the phosphorus amendment. While nitrogen amendment via NFC bioaugmentation is a sustainable and novel biostimulation method, phosphorus amendment significantly accelerates the biodegradation of crude oil under extremely arid conditions.
KW - Bacterial community shift
KW - Crude oil degradation
KW - Hot -dry desert
KW - Nutrient amendment
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85144576430&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ibiod.2022.105556
DO - 10.1016/j.ibiod.2022.105556
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85144576430
SN - 0964-8305
VL - 178
JO - International Biodeterioration and Biodegradation
JF - International Biodeterioration and Biodegradation
M1 - 105556
ER -