henanthrene degradation and strategies to improve bioavailability by icroorganisms isolated from sediments and marine waters in Argentine

PERESSUTTI, SR; HERRERA SEITZ, MK; POUYTE, K; PEDETTA, A; BABAY, PA; ESPINOSA, M; COSTAGLIOLA, M; STUDDERT, CA

Viena

Congreso; 15th International Symposium on Biodeterioration and Biodegradation”(IBBS-15); 2011

In  the  present  work  degradation  of  phenanthrene,  a  model  PAH  compound,  by  strains isolated  from  contaminated  sediments  and  marine  water  was  investigated.  Eight  strains were  isolated  from  enrichment  cultures;  they  belong  to  the  genera  Pseudomonas, Sphingomonas and Rhizobium as determined by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. All the strains were able  to grow  in mineral medium supplemented with phenanthrene as  the sole carbon source,  reaching counts of 109cell/ml. Phenanthrene disappearance was estimated by high performance  liquid  chromatography.  Strains  isolated  in  this  work  showed  high  PAH degradation potential, degrading between 90 and 100 percentage of the phenanthrene added to the medium (200 mg/L -1) after 12 days. In order  to study mechanisms  that could  influence PAH degradation, emulsifying activity and chemotaxis  to phenanthrene were analyzed for all  the strains. Several  isolates showed clear chemotactic responses towards phenanthrene, as assessed by different methods. Also, various  strains  displayed  emulsifying  activity.  Both  chemotaxis  and  biosurfactants production may contribute  to  the enhancement of phenantrene bioavailability, and  thus  to the efficiency of in situ bioremediation of contaminated sites.