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Isolation from coastal sea water and characterization of bacterial strains involved in non-ionic surfactant
1Laboratoire de Microbiologie, Faculté des Sciences et Techniques de Saint-Jérôme, Marseille, France.
Abstract:
A bacterial community degrading branched alkylphenol ethoxylate (APE) was selected from coastal sea water intermittently polluted by urban sewage. This community degraded more than 99% of a standard surfactant, TRITON X 100, but I.R. analysis of the remaining compound showed the accumulation of APE2 (alkylphenol with a two units length ethoxylated chain) which seemed very recalcitrant to further biodegradation. Twenty-five strains were isolated from this community, essentially Gram negative and were related to Pseudomonas, Oceanospirillum or Deleya genera. Among these strains, only four were able to degrade APE9-10 (TRITON X 100). They were related to the Pseudomonas genus and were of marine origin. Pure cultures performed with these strains on TRITON X 100 gave APE5 and APE4 as end products. These products were further degraded to APE2 by two other strains unable to degrade the initial surfactant.