Microbial diversity and hydrocarbon degrading gene capacity of a crude oil field soil as determined by metagenomics analysis |
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| Authors: | Firouz Abbasian Thavamani Palanisami Mallavarapu Megharaj Ravi Naidu Robin Lockington Kavitha Ramadass |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Global Centre for Environmental Remediation (GCER), Faculty of Science and Information Technology, the University of Newcastle, Callaghan, Australia;2. Cooperative Research Centre for Environmental Risk Assessment and Remediation of the Environment (CRC CARE), the University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, Australia;3. Future Industry Institute (FFI), University of South Australia, Australia |
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| Abstract: | Soils contaminated with crude oil are rich sources of enzymes suitable for both degradation of hydrocarbons through bioremediation processes and improvement of crude oil during its refining steps. Due to the long term selection, crude oil fields are unique environments for the identification of microorganisms with the ability to produce these enzymes. In this metagenomic study, based on Hiseq Illumina sequencing of samples obtained from a crude oil field and analysis of data on MG‐RAST, Actinomycetales (9.8%) were found to be the dominant microorganisms, followed by Rhizobiales (3.3%). Furthermore, several functional genes were found in this study, mostly belong to Actinobacteria (12.35%), which have a role in the metabolism of aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons (2.51%), desulfurization (0.03%), element shortage (5.6%), and resistance to heavy metals (1.1%). This information will be useful for assisting in the application of microorganisms in the removal of hydrocarbon contamination and/or for improving the quality of crude oil. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 32:638–648, 2016 |
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| Keywords: | metagenomic study crude oil well microbial diversity alkanes aromatic hydrocarbons |
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