Isolation and identification of toluene-degrading bacteria from oil spills of Gharehsoo River located in Kermanshah city

Subject Areas : Environmental Microbiology

Narges Shamsi ¹ , Roya Moravej ²

1 - MS.c., Department of Biology, Faculty of Basic Sciences, Sanandaj branch, Islamic Azad University, Sanandaj, Iran.
2 - Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, Faculty of Basic Sciences, Sanandaj branch, Islamic Azad University, Sanandaj, Iran.

Received: 2015-12-31 Accepted : 2016-04-01 Published : 2016-08-01

Keywords: Biodegradation, Toluene, Gharehsoo river, Pseudomonas putida, Oil refinery sewage,

Abstract :

Background & Objectives: Biodegradation is one of the most useful methods for elimination of oil spills and is recently considered as a promising approaches due to numbers of advantages, including low costs, high efficiency and being environment friendly. Gharehsoo river is one of those regions which have been contaminated by oil spills during recent years due to its vicinity to Kermanshah Oil Refining Company. This study was aimed to isolate and identify the toluene-degrading bacteria from oil spills in Gharehsoo river located at Kermanshah city. Materials & Methods: In this experimental study, the samples were collected from water, soil and active sludge of the contaminated areas. Two isolates were achieved by enrichment of the samples into a selective medium containing toluene. Then, the isolates were identified using morphology, Gram staining, biochemical methods and 16S rRNA sequencing. Also, the ability of isolates to eliminate toluene was testes based on Gas chromatography. Results: Both isolates were identified as Pseudomonas putida strains. Gas chromatography tests showed that the isolates 1 and 2 were able to degrade toluene into the selective medium (0.5% v/v) 89% and 87%, at 72 C, respectively. The isolates were also able to resist and grow under harsh conditions of temperature, pH and osmolality. It was proved that the isolates were able to continue their activity and growth in the presence of other crude oil pollutants (benzene, xylene, ethyl-benzene). Conclusion: Our results showed that these isolates were very efficient for elimination of oil pollutants due to their high growth rate in the presence of relatively high toluene concentration and to the ability to degrade a wide range of oil toxic compounds.

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