<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family: Mangal;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language: HI" lang="EN-GB">Degradation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) employing biosurfactant producing <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Pseudomonas aeruginosa</i> KS3</span>

Abstract

<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family: " times="" new="" roman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"times="" roman";mso-bidi-font-family:="" mangal;mso-ansi-language:en-gb;mso-fareast-language:en-us;mso-bidi-language:="" hi"="" lang="EN-GB">An efficient biosurfactant-producing/hydrocarbon-degrading native bacterial strain <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Pseudomonas aeruginosa</i> KS3 (identified by partial 16S rDNA gene sequencing) was isolated from crude oil contaminated soil collected from the oil field of Lakowa in Sivasagar district of Assam, India. Experiments were conducted in the laboratory to determine the efficiency of strain KS3 to degrade polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Further, biosurfactant production was measured based on surface tension (ST) reduction of culture media. The results of the study show that this native biosurfactant producing bacterial strain has great potentiality in the degradation of total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) and PAHs, which have great prospects in remediation of hydrocarbon from contaminated sites. It was found that the strain KS3 could degrade 79.16% of TPH in 4 wk of incubation time. The strain also demonstrated efficient degradation of PAHs. Among the 16 major PAHs present in the crude oil sample, strain KS3 could completely degrade 8 of them. Biochemical and FTIR analyses confirmed that the produced biosurfactant was glycolipid in nature.</span>