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A Toolkit to Enable Hydrocarbon Conversion in Aqueous Environments
Published on: October 2, 2012
Frequency of genes in aromatic and aliphatic hydrocarbon biodegradation pathways within bacterial populations from
J B Sotsky1, C W Greer, R M Atlas
1Department of Biology, University of Louisville, KY 40292.
Abstract:
A significant proportion of the naturally occurring hydrocarbon-degrading populations within Alaskan sediments affected by the Exxon Valdez oil spill had both the xylE and alkB genes and could convert hexadecane and naphthalene to carbon dioxide; a greater proportion of the population had xylE than had alkB, reflecting the composition of the residual oil at the time of sampling; nearly equal populations with xylE alone, alkB alone, and xylE + alkB genes together were found after exposure to fresh crude oil; populations with xylE lacking alkB increased after enrichment on naphthalene. Thus, the genotypes of hydrocarbon-degrading populations reflected the composition of the hydrocarbons to which they were exposed.
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