Biosurfactant-Producing Denitrifying Bacteria in Marine Petroleum-Contaminated Environmental Sites
Denitrifying bacteria are ubiquitously distributed in marine ecosystems and especially widespread in hydrocarbon-contaminated systems. Their unique flexible respiratory mechanism and ability to degrade a broad range of aliphatic, aromatic, and polycyclic
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Biosurfactant-Producing Denitrifying Bacteria in Marine Petroleum-Contaminated Environmental Sites Trelita de Sousa
Abstract
Denitrifying bacteria are ubiquitously distributed in marine ecosystems and especially widespread in hydrocarbon-contaminated systems. Their unique flexible respiratory mechanism and ability to degrade a broad range of aliphatic, aromatic, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons enable them to withstand varying oxygen fluxes prevalent in oil-contaminated sites. This chapter emphasizes the significance of denitrifying bacteria in hydrocarbon-contaminated environments. It elucidates the various mechanisms adopted by denitrifying bacteria to degrade hydrocarbons including aliphatic, aromatic, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and adapt effectively to oxygen fluxes prevalent in petroleum-contaminated systems. In order to facilitate hydrocarbon degradation, denitrifying bacteria produce amphiphilic metabolites like biosurfactants and bioemulsifiers. Such surface-active compounds isolated from indigenous bacteria have received increasing interest over the past few decades due to their important applications in bioremediation projects designed to combat oil spills and in handling, transportation, and recovery of oil. This chapter focuses on the significance of biosurfactant-producing denitrifying bacteria in marine petroleum-contaminated sites for effective use in bioremediation studies.
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T. de Sousa (*) Department of Microbiology, Goa University, Taleigao Plateau, Goa 403206, India e-mail: [email protected]
Introduction
Petroleum comprises natural gas, condensate, and crude oil and is a complex mixture of various aliphatic, aromatic, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (Hassanshahian and Cappello 2013; De Sousa 2015). There is no doubt that petroleum commands widespread anthropogenic usage and global economic importance
© Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2017 M.M. Naik, S.K. Dubey (eds.), Marine Pollution and Microbial Remediation, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-1044-6_8
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(Hassanshahian and Cappello 2013). However, when ruthlessly released into the environment, this vital commodity becomes a serious threat to both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems including deep-sea, coastal, and estuarine systems, due to their deleterious effects to every marine organism from bacteria, planktons, algae, and fungi to corals, fish, crustaceans, birds, plants, and animals (Ingole and Sivadas 2007; De Sousa 2015). An estimated 1.3 million tones of petroleum enters the marine environment each year (McGenity et al. 2012). Cataclysmically devastating oil spills like the Exxon Valdez oil spill at Prince William Sound, Alaska (1989), the Prestige oil spill in Galicia (2002), and the Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico (2010) only add to the already alarming petroleum burden of coastal and ocean ecosystems (Atlas 2011; Jain et al. 2011; McGenity et al. 2012; De Sousa 2015). Bioremediation using indigenous microorganisms formulates an ideal strategy to overcome this urgent global issue (Atlas 2011; Jain
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