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Oxidation of Hydrocarbons by Marine Bacteria.

1942; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 51; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3181/00379727-51-13928

1535-3702

Chris W.M. Grant, Claude E. ZoBell,

Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology

Using oxygen consumption as a criterion it has been demonstrated that various kinds of pure and mixed hydrocarbons are oxidized by bacteria found in sea water and marine mud. The bacteria were grown in sea water enriched with hydrocarbons as the only source of energy. In the initial experiments the manometric technic was used for following oxygen consumption but later it was found that more accurate results were obtainable by determining the dissolved oxygen content of water. Sea water inoculated with enrichment cultures was thoroughly shaken to insure uniformity in its composition and its saturation with oxygen, after which it was siphoned into 150 ml glass-stoppered bottles. While holding the bottles at an angle to provide for trapping the hydrocarbon in the shoulder of the bottle, 0.1 ml of hydrocarbon was introduced with a pipette. The bottle was then stoppered, care being taken not to entrap any air bubbles. Duplicate bottles of water were analyzed at once for oxygen content using the Winkler technic, and other bottles were analyzed after different periods of incubation in a water bath at 22°C. The protocol of a representative experiment in which raw sea water was used is summarized in Table I. Similar results were obtained with aged sea water which was virtually organic matter-free as indicated by the fact that its B.O.D. was less than 1.0mg/1. It is especially noteworthy that toluene which is sometimes used as a preservative of biological materials was attacked by certain marine bacteria. Soil bacteria which oxidize toluene have been described by Gray and Thornton and by Tauson. Incidentally in these studies we found marine microörganisms which utilize phenol and creso. Some of them tolerate a saturated aqueous solution of tricresol and as much as 1.0% phenol.