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Updated: Jul 6, 2026

Isolation, Propagation, and Identification of Bacterial Species with Hydrocarbon Metabolizing Properties from Aquatic Habitats
Published on: December 7, 2021
Bacteria from hydrocarbon seep areas growing on short-chain alkanes
Gerard Muyzer1, Geert M van der Kraan
1Department of Biotechnology, Delft University of Technology, Delft, 2628 BC, The Netherlands. g.muyzer@tudelft.nl
Abstract:
Marine hydrocarbon seeps introduce large amounts of organic carbon into the environment. Different microorganisms inhabit these unusual environments using the hydrocarbons as an energy source. A recent paper by Kniemeyer et al. shows, for the first time, that sulfate-reducing bacteria isolated from hydrocarbon seeps can oxidize short-chain hydrocarbons anaerobically. This finding is an important contribution to our understanding of the role of microbes in the recycling of chemically inactive carbon compounds.
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