IBR   13079
INSTITUTO DE BIOLOGIA MOLECULAR Y CELULAR DE ROSARIO
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Bioremediation of PAH and environmental protection in Argentina, the importance of industry and academic interaction
Autor/es:
VERA, M. N.; PEDRIDO, M.; LOPEZ, C.; ROBERTO RICARDO GRAU
Lugar:
Viena
Reunión:
Congreso; 11th International Congress on Microbial Ecology, ISME 11; 2006
Resumen:
BIOREMEDIATION OF POLY-CYCLIC AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS (PAH) AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION IN ARGENTINA, THE IMPORTANCE OF INDUSTRY AND ACADEMY INTERACTION   Pedrido1 M. E., Vera2 N., López2 C, and Grau1* R.   1Departamento de Microbiología, Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas FCByF-UNR e Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario, IBR-CONICET. Rosario (2000) – Argentina 2Petrobras Energía, Planta de Puerto General San Martín, Argentina.   Environmental pollution generated by petroleum industry has stimulated the application of biotechnologies and decontamination processes that tend to reduce the detrimental ecological and social impact over communities and ecosystems. One of the most promising approaches, because of its low economical cost and beneficial ecological impact, is to biotreat and bioremediate the waste and the polluted environment by exploiting the tremendous catabolic capability of microorganisms. Here we report the isolation and selection of natural microbial isolates and their use for bioremediation of contaminated environments. Among the natural isolates that degraded a wide range of PAH we identified members of the genus Pseudomonas. The presence of plasmids, the production of biosurfactants (rhamnolipids, Rhl), swarming motility (SM) and PAH-induced quorum sensing-responses were characterized in these isolates. These PAH-degrading microorganisms were able to grow in synthetic media using PAH as the unique energy and carbon source. Furthermore, they were able to bioremediate complex samples of petrochemical-derived hydrocarbons (more than a hundred of different PAH) in pure cultures or in presence of the indigenous effluent flora. We also found that some of these isolates were able to degrade BTX / Styrene and form robust and differentiate biofilms, properties which would allow these bacteria to be used in polluted gas treatment processes. These results acquire biotechnological importance for their use in the resolution of environmental pollution derived from intensive industrial activities.