Biofilm comprising phototrophic, diazotrophic, and hydrocarbon-utilizing bacteria: a promising consortium in the bioremediation of aquatic hydrocarbon pollutants

Al-Bader, Dhia; Kansour, Mayada K.; Rayan, Rehab; Radwan, Samir S.

Biofilm comprising phototrophic, diazotrophic, and hydrocarbon-utilizing bacteria: a promising consortium in the bioremediation of aquatic hydrocarbon pollutants

2013

Al-Bader, Dhia | Kansour, Mayada K. | Rayan, Rehab | Radwan, Samir S.

Biofilms harboring simultaneously anoxygenic and oxygenic phototrophic bacteria, diazotrophic bacteria, and hydrocarbon-utilizing bacteria were established on glass slides suspended in pristine and oily seawater. Via denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis analysis on PCR-amplified rRNA gene sequence fragments from the extracted DNA from biofilms, followed by band amplification, biofilm composition was determined. The biofilms contained anoxygenic phototrophs belonging to alphaproteobacteria; pico- and filamentous cyanobacteria (oxygenic phototrophs); two species of the diazotroph Azospirillum; and two hydrocarbon-utilizing gammaproteobacterial genera, Cycloclasticus and Oleibacter. The coexistence of all these microbial taxa with different physiologies in the biofilm makes the whole community nutritionally self-sufficient and adequately aerated, a condition quite suitable for the microbial biodegradation of aquatic pollutant hydrocarbons.

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