These bacteria use oil as a source of carbon, nutrients and energy, secreting a substance to break down the surface tension of the oil, before absorbing the emulsified petroleum into their cells that hydrolyze the oil through enzymatic activity.
Researchers at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia conducted a comprehensive analysis of bacterial communities in the active Deception Island volcano in Antarctica, revealing broad prospects for using extreme bacteria, including thermophilic bacteria, to remove oil pollution.
The researchers published the results of their research in the journals " Microorganisms " and " Frontiers in Microbiology".
What are thermophilic bacteria?
Biology Online defines thermophiles as organisms that have adapted to life at elevated temperatures between 60 and 140 degrees Celsius. To huge rates lethal to any living creatures.
These extreme bacteria, which thrive in the harshest conditions, hold huge potential in many biotechnology applications.
These bacteria have adapted to these conditions, succeeded in maintaining their metabolic activity, exhibited diverse metabolic and physiological capabilities, and often secreted very useful and important biological products.
Among these biological products are enzymes and active biological compounds that are used in areas such as agriculture, the pharmaceutical industry, and space exploration as well. One of the applications of these bacteria is that they provide a safe and highly efficient way to clean up oil pollution.
Journey to find bacteria that devour oil!
Antarctica volcanoes are characterized by large temperature gradients, which allows for the selection of different types of extreme bacteria. One of these volcanoes is Deception Island, a marine volcano that has sharp temperature gradients over short distances ranging from 100 degrees to 100 degrees. Below zero, which makes it an attractive source for a variety of bio-products that are suitable for use in different biotechnology fields.
Researchers at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology isolated thermophilic bacteria from sediments from two locations in the volcano with temperatures ranging from 50 to 100 degrees Celsius, to evaluate the potential ability of these bacteria to decompose petroleum hydrocarbons and produce biomaterials at elevated temperatures.
This was not easy because it was difficult to mimic the conditions of harsh environments in the laboratory to grow these bacterial strains, and the cellular biomass of these bacteria that live in harsh environments was very small, which made DNA extraction very difficult.
The researchers collected enough high-quality DNA for genetic analysis. The team identified genes related to genomic stabilization under temperature fluctuations, heat and cold shock proteins, DNA repair against UV radiation and resistance to alkaline conditions, and genes for starch and cellulose degradation.
The researchers analyzed all strains to distinguish those capable of producing surfactants and hydrolysing oils by culturing 126 thermophilic bacterial strains, 76 of which grew well in bacterial cultures that contained crude oil as the sole carbon source.
30 strains showed a high ability to analyze oil; Among the 50 strains tested for biomaterials, 13 had outstanding performance and produced oil surfactants, and 4 of them showed significant ability to hydrolyze crude oil.
How are bacteria used in the face of oil pollution?
Oil is one of the most complex pollutants on Earth, and the efficiency and effectiveness of microbial analysis depends on many factors from local environmental variables such as temperature and pH to the proportion, quantity and composition of the oil present.
According to the study's press release published on Phys.org on October 3, Junia Schultz, a postdoctoral researcher at the Red Sea Research Center of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, explained the secret of the ability of These bacteria on oil decomposition, she said, "These bacteria use oil as a source of carbon, nutrients and energy, first secreting surfactants to break down the surface tension of the oil, before absorbing emulsified petroleum into their cells that decompose the oil through enzymatic activity. for oil pollution removal but for many applications."
"We can fully understand the bacterial strains in Saudi Arabia and their metabolic capacity to design future approaches to address oil pollution not only in Antarctica, but across the world. The potential offered by the harsh bacteria is enormous, and motivates us to explore and study the harsh environments of Saudi Arabia to obtain New bioproducts are used in a wide variety of applications."
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