Syntrophic biodegradation of hydrocarbon contaminants

Anaerobic environments are crucial to global carbon cycling wherein the microbial metabolism of organic matter occurs under a variety of redox conditions. In many anaerobic ecosystems, syntrophy plays a key role wherein microbial species must cooperate, essentially as a single catalytic unit, to metabolize substrates in a mutually beneficial manner. Hydrocarbon-contaminated environments such as groundwater aquifers are typically anaerobic, and often methanogenic. Syntrophic processes are needed to biodegrade hydrocarbons to methane, and recent studies suggest that syntrophic hydrocarbon metabolism can also occur in the presence of electron acceptors. The elucidation of key features of syntrophic processes in defined co-cultures has benefited greatly from advances in 'omics' based tools. Such tools, along with approaches like stable isotope probing, are now being used to monitor carbon flow within an increasing number of hydrocarbon-degrading consortia to pinpoint the key microbial players involved in the degradative pathways. The metagenomic sequencing of hydrocarbon-utilizing consortia should help to further identify key syntrophic features and define microbial interactions in these complex communities.