Effect of copper on diesel degradation in Pseudomonas extremaustralis

COLONNELLA, MARÍA ANTONELA; LIZARRAGA, LEONARDO; ROSSI, LETICIA; DÍAZ PEÑA, ROCÍO; EGOBURO, DIEGO; LÓPEZ, NANCY I.; IUSTMAN, LAURA J. RAIGER

EXTREMOPHILES

SPRINGER TOKYO

Lugar: Tokyo; Año: 2018 vol. 23 p. 91 - 99

1431-0651

Environments co-contaminated with heavy metals and hydrocarbons have become an important problem worldwide, especially due to the effect of metals on hydrocarbon degrading microorganisms. Pseudomonas extremaustralis, a bacteriumisolated from a pristine pond in Antarctica, showed high capabilities to cope with environmental stress and a very versatile metabolism that includes alkane degradation under microaerobic conditions. In this work, we analyzed P. extremaustralis? capability to resist high copper concentrations and the effect of copper presence in diesel biodegradation. We observed thatP. extremaustralis resisted up to 4 mM CuSO4in a rich medium such as LB. This copper resistance is sustained by the presence of the cus and cop operons together with other efflux systems and porins located in a single region in P. extremaustralisgenome. When copper was present, diesel degradation was negatively affected,even though copper enhanced bacterial attachment to hydrocarbons. However, when a small amount of glucose (0.05% w/v) was added, the presence of CuSO4enhanced alkane degradation. In addition, atomic force microscopy analysis showed that the presence of glucose decreased the negative effects produced by copper and diesel on the cell envelopes.