Enhancement of Crude Oil Biodegradation by Pseudomonas reinekei MT1

Abstract

One of the greatest challenges facing today is endangering living organisms as a result of environmental pollution caused by petroleum crude oil. Therefore it was necessary, to find out a way to remediate these pollutants biologically. An oil degrading bacterial isolate was isolated from oil polluted soils and optimized for oil biodegradation. Psuedomonas reinekei MT1 was able to produce biosurfactants which play a major role in the availability of oil for bacterial biodegradation. Ps. reinekei MT1 gives maximum oil degradation on 30ºC, pH 7, sodium nitrate as nitrogen source and addition of gasoline and triton X100. Oil degradation reaches 69.62% after 15 days of incubation. Salinity decreased oil degradation, although Ps. reinekei MT1 had the ability of growing and degrading oil in salinity reaches 2%, while there was neither bacterial growth nor oil degradation at 3%.