Evaluating robustness of a diesel-degrading bacterial consortium isolated from contaminated soil.

It is not known whether diesel-degrading bacterial communities are structurally and functionally robust when exposed to different hydrocarbon types. Here, we exposed a diesel-degrading consortium to model either alkanes, cycloalkanes or aromatic hydrocarbons as carbon sources to study its structural resistance. The structural resistance was low, with changes in relative abundances of up to four orders of magnitude, depending on hydrocarbon type and bacterial taxon. This low resistance is explained by the presence of hydrocarbon-degrading specialists in the consortium and differences in growth kinetics on individual hydrocarbons. However, despite this low resistance, structural and functional resilience were high, as verified by re-exposing the hydrocarbon-perturbed consortium to diesel fuel. The high resilience is either due to the short exposure time, insufficient for permanent changes in consortium structure and function, or the ability of some consortium members to be maintained during exposure on degradation intermediates produced by other members. Thus, the consortium is expected to cope with short-term exposures to narrow carbon feeds, while maintaining its structural and functional integrity, which remains an advantage over biodegradation approaches using single species cultures.

[1]  P. J. Morris,et al.  Biodegradation rates of separated diesel components , 1999 .

[2]  Sharon C Long,et al.  Monod kinetics for aerobic biodegradation of petroleum hydrocarbons in unsaturated soil microcosms. , 2007, Environmental science & technology.

[3]  A. Pedregosa,et al.  Biosurfactant-mediated biodegradation of straight and methyl-branched alkanes by Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 55925 , 2011, AMB Express.

[4]  Alicja Szulc,et al.  Biodegradation of rhamnolipids in liquid cultures: effect of biosurfactant dissipation on diesel fuel/B20 blend biodegradation efficiency and bacterial community composition. , 2012, Bioresource technology.

[5]  M. Kumara,et al.  Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Degradation by Biosurfactant-Producing Pseudomonas sp . IR 1 , 2006 .

[6]  É. Yergeau,et al.  Alteration of microbial community structure affects diesel biodegradation in an Arctic soil. , 2013, FEMS microbiology ecology.

[7]  Jung-Kul Lee,et al.  Decomposition of aromatic hydrocarbon intermediates by recombinant hydroxyquinol 1,2-dioxygenase from Arthrobacter chlorophenolicus A6 and its structure characterization , 2014 .

[8]  N. Dashti,et al.  Potential of hexadecane-utilizing soil-microorganisms for growth on hexadecanol, hexadecanal and hexadecanoic acid as sole sources of carbon and energy. , 2008, Chemosphere.

[9]  M. Ananthi,et al.  Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) Biodegradation by Basidiomycetes Fungi, Pseudomonas Isolate, and Their Cocultures: Comparative In Vivo and In Silico Approach , 2008, Applied biochemistry and biotechnology.

[10]  Woojun Park,et al.  Polaromonas naphthalenivorans sp. nov., a naphthalene-degrading bacterium from naphthalene-contaminated sediment. , 2004, International journal of systematic and evolutionary microbiology.

[11]  T. Hazen,et al.  Hydrocarbon-Degrading Bacteria and the Bacterial Community Response in Gulf of Mexico Beach Sands Impacted by the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill , 2011, Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

[12]  M. Griffin,et al.  Microbial Metabolism of Alicyclic Hydrocarbons: Cyclohexane Catabolism by a Pure Strain of Pseudomonas sp. , 1980 .

[13]  H. Heipieper,et al.  Relative quantitative PCR to assess bacterial community dynamics during biodegradation of diesel and biodiesel fuels under various aeration conditions. , 2011, Bioresource technology.

[14]  G. Płaza,et al.  Biodegradation of Crude Oil and Distillation Products by Biosurfactant-Producing Bacteria , 2008 .

[15]  S. Meyer,et al.  Differential detection of key enzymes of polyaromatic-hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria using PCR and gene probes. , 1999, Microbiology.

[16]  L. Ciric,et al.  Hydrocarbon utilization within a diesel-degrading bacterial consortium. , 2010, FEMS microbiology letters.

[17]  B. Cao,et al.  Biodegradation of aromatic compounds: current status and opportunities for biomolecular approaches , 2009, Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology.

[18]  E. Igbinosa,et al.  Escravos light crude oil degrading potentials of axenic and mixed bacterial cultures. , 2008, The Journal of general and applied microbiology.

[19]  L. Ciric,et al.  Field scale molecular analysis for the monitoring of bacterial community structures during on-site diesel bioremediation. , 2010, Bioresource technology.

[20]  Alicja Szulc,et al.  Biodegradation and surfactant-mediated biodegradation of diesel fuel by 218 microbial consortia are not correlated to cell surface hydrophobicity , 2009, Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology.

[21]  F. Rojo.  Degradation of alkanes by bacteria. , 2009, Environmental microbiology.

[22]  A. Steinbüchel,et al.  Metabolic characteristics of the species Variovorax paradoxus , 2012, Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology.

[23]  H. Heipieper,et al.  Biodegradation of diesel/biodiesel blends in saturated sand microcosms , 2014 .

[24]  C. Larroche,et al.  In situ bioremediation of monoaromatic pollutants in groundwater: a review. , 2008, Bioresource technology.

[25]  M. Kumar,et al.  Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Degradation by Biosurfactant-Producing Pseudomonas sp. IR1 , 2006, Zeitschrift fur Naturforschung. C, Journal of biosciences.

[26]  Colin W. Bell,et al.  Linking Microbial Community Structure and Function to Seasonal Differences in Soil Moisture and Temperature in a Chihuahuan Desert Grassland , 2009, Microbial Ecology.

[27]  Thomas D. Schmittgen,et al.  Analysis of relative gene expression data using real-time quantitative PCR and the 2(-Delta Delta C(T)) Method. , 2001, Methods.

[28]  D. Springael,et al.  Microbial community structure of a heavy fuel oil-degrading marine consortium: linking microbial dynamics with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon utilization. , 2010, FEMS microbiology ecology.

[29]  S. Rowland,et al.  Aerobic biotransformation of alkyl branched aromatic alkanoic naphthenic acids via two different pathways by a new isolate of Mycobacterium. , 2012, Environmental microbiology.

[30]  H. Heipieper,et al.  Biodegradation of diesel/biodiesel blends by a consortium of hydrocarbon degraders: effect of the type of blend and the addition of biosurfactants. , 2009, Bioresource technology.

[31]  S. Allison,et al.  Resistance, resilience, and redundancy in microbial communities , 2008, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[32]  D. M. Ward,et al.  Effects of petroleum mixture types on soil bacterial population dynamics associated with the biodegradation of hydrocarbons in soil environments. , 2013, FEMS microbiology ecology.

[33]  D. M. Ward,et al.  Microbial Population Dynamics Associated with Crude-Oil Biodegradation in Diverse Soils , 2006, Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

[34]  A. Stams,et al.  Isolation and Characterization of Alicycliphilus denitrificans Strain BC, Which Grows on Benzene with Chlorate as the Electron Acceptor , 2008, Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

[35]  F. Rojo.  Enzymes for Aerobic Degradation of Alkanes , 2010 .

[36]  C. Criddle,et al.  Correlation of patterns of denitrification instability in replicated bioreactor communities with shifts in the relative abundance and the denitrification patterns of specific populations , 2007, The ISME Journal.

[37]  Courtney J. Robinson,et al.  Rules of engagement: interspecies interactions that regulate microbial communities. , 2008, Annual review of microbiology.

[38]  P. Phale,et al.  Biodegradation of phenanthrene by Alcaligenes sp. strain PPH: partial purification and characterization of 1-hydroxy-2-naphthoic acid hydroxylase. , 2010, FEMS microbiology letters.

[39]  F. Rojo,et al.  Characterization of bacterial strains able to grow on high molecular mass residues from crude oil processing. , 2000, FEMS microbiology ecology.

[40]  M. Mariadassou,et al.  Microbial ecosystems are dominated by specialist taxa. , 2015, Ecology letters.

[41]  Hilary G. Morrison,et al.  Reproducible Community Dynamics of the Gastrointestinal Microbiota following Antibiotic Perturbation , 2009, Infection and Immunity.