Oil spills are absolutely a threat to the environment and many living organisms like plants and animals. In the oceans, oil spills prove to be very disastrous to marine organisms like fishes, turtles, and even sea birds. Oil spill cleanup has never been an easy task and involves extensive labor and new technologies. Microbial degradation of oil spills has intensified over the years. Certain species of bacteria are capable of breaking down oil. Species belonging to Alcanivorax, Marinobacter, Thallassolituus, Cycloclasticus, Oleispira genera of marine bacteria are capable of oil degradation. Such oil spill bacteria were also used to clean up the Exxon Valdez. The Marine Bacterium Alcanivorax borkumensis
1. Alcanivorax borkumensis is an omnipresent bacterium rod-shaped that has special characteristics to degrade oil growth.
2. These bacteria are found abundant in polluted waters but scarcely populated in clear waters.
3. The physiology includes alkane metabolism that can destroy a vast range of alkane hydrocarbons. This bacterium has three different alkane-oxidizing systems for the breakdown of a broad range of oil hydrocarbons.
4. They use oil hydrocarbons as their source of carbon and energy. The bacteria acts on hydrocarbons to produce glucose lipids. These biosurfactants act as an emulsifier to enhance the degradation rate of hydrocarbons.
5. Genome sequencing has revealed the low prevalence of mobile genetic elements and an excess of genes related to oil degradation.
6. When populated at oil spill sites, these bacteria can eliminate a considerable amount of petroleum.
7. Due to all these factors, Alcanivorax borkumensis is considered to be one of the best ecological biodegrader. T
he genome of Alcanivorax borkumensis was sequenced by a group of scientists, co-led by Martins dos Santos of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research in Braunschweig, Germany. A research team has also been running pilot tests with the Alcanivorax borkumensis bacterium in the North Sea. Further research to sequence the genome of other, oil-degrading bacteria is also being carried out in the United States, Australia, and Japan. Such research will contribute immensely to field of oil spill cleanup with bacteria.
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