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Summary Petroleum‐based plastics have replaced many natural materials in their former applications. With their excellent properties, they have found widespread uses in almost every area of human life. However, the high recalcitrance of many synthetic plastics results in their long persistence in the environment, and the growing amount of plastic waste ending up in landfills and in the oceans has become a global concern. In recent years, a number of microbial enzymes capable of modifying or degrading recalcitrant synthetic polymers have been identified. They are emerging as candidates for the development of biocatalytic plastic recycling processes, by which valuable raw materials can be recovered in an environmentally sustainable way. This review is focused on microbial biocatalysts involved in the degradation of the synthetic plastics polyethylene, polystyrene, polyurethane and polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Recent progress in the application of polyester hydrolases for the recovery of PET building blocks and challenges for the application of these enzymes in alternative plastic waste recycling processes will be discussed. The high recalcitrance of many synthetic plastics results in their long persistence in the environment and globally in growing amounts of plastic waste. Microbial enzymes are emerging as candidates for the development of biocatalytic plastic recycling processes.

The lack of microbial genomes and isolates from the deep seabed means that very little is known about the ecology of this vast habitat. Here, we investigate energy and carbon acquisition strategies of microbial communities from three deep seabed petroleum seeps (3 km water depth) in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico. Shotgun metagenomic analysis reveals that each sediment harbors diverse communities of chemoheterotrophs and chemolithotrophs. We recovered 82 metagenome-assembled genomes affiliated with 21 different archaeal and bacterial phyla. Multiple genomes encode enzymes for anaerobic oxidation of aliphatic and aromatic compounds, including those of candidate phyla Aerophobetes, Aminicenantes, TA06 and Bathyarchaeota. Microbial interactions are predicted to be driven by acetate and molecular hydrogen. These findings are supported by sediment geochemistry, metabolomics, and thermodynamic modelling. Overall, we infer that deep-sea sediments experiencing thermogenic hydrocarbon inputs harbor phylogenetically and functionally diverse communities potentially sustained through anaerobic hydrocarbon, acetate and hydrogen metabolism. Little is known about the microbial ecology of the deep seabed. Here, Dong et al. predict metabolic capabilities and microbial interactions in deep seabed petroleum seeps using shotgun metagenomics, sediment geochemistry, metabolomics, and thermodynamic modelling.

Advanced biofuels produced by microorganisms have similar properties to petroleum-based fuels, and can 'drop in' to the existing transportation infrastructure. However, producing these biofuels in yields high enough to be useful requires the engineering of the microorganism's metabolism. Such engineering is not based on just one specific feedstock or host organism. Data-driven and synthetic-biology approaches can be used to optimize both the host and pathways to maximize fuel production. Despite some success, challenges still need to be met to move advanced biofuels towards commercialization, and to compete with more conventional fuels.

Subsurface petroleum reservoirs are an important component of the deep biosphere where indigenous microorganisms live under extreme conditions and in isolation from the Earth’s surface for millions of years. However, unlike the bulk of the deep biosphere, the petroleum reservoir deep biosphere is subject to extreme anthropogenic perturbation, with the introduction of new electron acceptors, donors and exogenous microbes during oil exploration and production. Despite the fundamental and practical significance of this perturbation, there has never been a systematic evaluation of the ecological changes that occur over the production lifetime of an active offshore petroleum production system. Analysis of the entire Halfdan oil field in the North Sea (32 producing wells in production for 1–15 years) using quantitative PCR, multigenic sequencing, comparative metagenomic and genomic bins reconstruction revealed systematic shifts in microbial community composition and metabolic potential, as well as changing ecological strategies in response to anthropogenic perturbation of the oil field ecosystem, related to length of time in production. The microbial communities were initially dominated by slow growing anaerobes such as members of the Thermotogales and Clostridiales adapted to living on hydrocarbons and complex refractory organic matter. However, as seawater and nitrate injection (used for secondary oil production) delivered oxidants, the microbial community composition progressively changed to fast growing opportunists such as members of the Deferribacteres , Delta- , Epsilon - and Gammaproteobacteria , with energetically more favorable metabolism (for example, nitrate reduction, H 2 S, sulfide and sulfur oxidation). This perturbation has profound consequences for understanding the microbial ecology of the system and is of considerable practical importance as it promotes detrimental processes such as reservoir souring and metal corrosion. These findings provide a new conceptual framework for understanding the petroleum reservoir biosphere and have consequences for developing strategies to manage microbiological problems in the oil industry.

Bioremediation is an environmental sustainable and cost-effective technology for the cleanup of hydrocarbon-polluted soils and coasts. In spite of that longer times are usually required compared with physicochemical strategies, complete degradation of the pollutant can be achieved, and no further confinement of polluted matrix is needed. Microbial aerobic degradation is achieved by the incorporation of molecular oxygen into the inert hydrocarbon molecule and funneling intermediates into central catabolic pathways. Several families of alkane monooxygenases and ring hydroxylating dioxygenases are distributed mainly among Proteobacteria , Actinobacteria , Firmicutes and Fungi strains. Catabolic routes, regulatory networks, and tolerance/resistance mechanisms have been characterized in model hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria to understand and optimize their metabolic capabilities, providing the basis to enhance microbial fitness in order to improve hydrocarbon removal. However, microbial communities taken as a whole play a key role in hydrocarbon pollution events. Microbial community dynamics during biodegradation is crucial for understanding how they respond and adapt to pollution and remediation. Several strategies have been applied worldwide for the recovery of sites contaminated with persistent organic pollutants, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and petroleum derivatives. Common strategies include controlling environmental variables (e.g., oxygen availability, hydrocarbon solubility, nutrient balance) and managing hydrocarbon-degrading microorganisms, in order to overcome the rate-limiting factors that slow down hydrocarbon biodegradation.

Due to the toxicity of petroleum compounds, the increasing accidents of marine oil spills/leakages have had a significant impact on our environment. Recently, different remedial techniques for the treatment of marine petroleum pollution have been proposed, such as bioremediation, controlled burning, skimming, and solidifying. (Hedlund and Staley in Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 51:61–66, 2001). This review introduces an important remedial method for marine oil pollution treatment—bioremediation technique—which is considered as a reliable, efficient, cost-effective, and eco-friendly method. First, the necessity of bioremediation for marine oil pollution was discussed. Second, this paper discussed the species of oil-degrading microorganisms, degradation pathways and mechanisms, the degradation rate and reaction model, and the factors affecting the degradation. Last, several suggestions for the further research in the field of marine oil spill bioremediation were proposed.

The Deepwater Horizon (DWH) blowout resulted in the deposition to the seafloor of up to 4.9% of 200 million gallons of oil released into the Gulf of Mexico. The petroleum hydrocarbon concentrations near the wellhead were high immediately after the spill, but returned to background levels a few years after the spill. Microbial communities in the seafloor are thought to be responsible for the degradation of hydrocarbons, however, our knowledge is primarily based upon gene diversity surveys and hydrocarbon concentration in field sediment samples. Here, we investigated the oil degradation potential and changes in bacterial community by amending seafloor sediment collected near the DWH site with crude oil and both oil and Corexit dispersant. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were rapidly degraded during the first 30 days of incubation, while alkanes were degraded more slowly. With the degradation of hydrocarbons, the relative abundances of Colwelliaceae , Alteromonadaceae , Methylococales , Alcanivorax , Bacteriovorax , and Phaeobacter increased remarkably. However, the abundances of oil-degrading bacteria changed with oil chemistry. Colwelliaceae decreased with increasing oil degradation, whereas Alcanivorax and Methylococcales increased considerably. We assembled seven genomes from the metagenome, including ones belonging to Colwellia , Alteromonadaceae , Rhodobacteraceae , the newly reported genus Woeseia , and candidate phylum NC10, all of which possess a repertoire of genes for hydrocarbon degradation. Moreover, genes related to hydrocarbon degradation were highly enriched in the oiled treatment, suggesting that the hydrocarbons were biodegraded, and that the indigenous microflora have a remarkable potential for the natural attenuation of spilled oil in the deep-sea surface sediment.

To investigate the effect of plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPR) and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) on phytoremediation in saline-alkali soil contaminated by petroleum, saline-alkali soil samples were artificially mixed with different amount of oil, 5 and 10 g/kg, respectively. Pot experiments with oat plants (Avena sativa) were conducted under greenhouse condition for 60 days. Plant biomass, physiological parameters in leaves, soil enzymes, and degradation rate of total petroleum hydrocarbon were measured. The result demonstrated that petroleum inhibited the growth of the plant; however, inoculation with PGPR in combination with AMF resulted in an increase in dry weight and stem height compared with noninoculated controls. Petroleum stress increased the accumulation of malondialdehyde (MDA) and free proline and the activities of the antioxidant enzyme such as superoxide dismutase, catalase, and peroxidase. Application of PGPR and AMF augmented the activities of three enzymes compared to their respective uninoculated controls, but decreased the MDA and free proline contents, indicating that PGPR and AMF could make the plants more tolerant to harmful hydrocarbon contaminants. It also improved the soil quality by increasing the activities of soil enzyme such as urease, sucrase, and dehydrogenase. In addition, the degradation rate of total petroleum hydrocarbon during treatment with PGPR and AMF in moderately contaminated soil reached a maximum of 49.73 %. Therefore, we concluded the plants treated with a combination of PGPR and AMF had a high potential to contribute to remediation of saline-alkali soil contaminated with petroleum.

Indigenous micro-organisms often possess the ability to degrade petroleum hydrocarbon (PHC) in polluted soil. However, this process can be improved by supplementing with nutrients or the addition of more potent microbes. In this study, the ability of kenaf-core to stimulate the PHC degradation capability of microbial isolates from PHC polluted soil samples was evaluated. The standard experimental methods used in this study include: the digestion and analysis of the physico-chemical properties of petroleum hydrocarbon contaminated and non-contaminated soil samples; evaluation of petroleum hydrocarbon biodegradation using bio-augmentation and bio-stimulation (with kenaf-core) treatments; and, determination of soil microbial enzyme activities. Results from this study show that K, Na, total nitrogen, organic carbon, exchangeable cations, and heavy metals were found to be significantly ( P  < 0.05) higher in the polluted soil than in the non-polluted soil. Also, the polluted samples had pH values ranging from 5.5 to 6.0 while the non-polluted samples had a pH of 7.6. The microbial enzyme activities were comparatively lower in the polluted soils as compared to the non-polluted soil. The percentage degradation in the kenaf-core treated samples (AZ 1 T 2 —78.38; BN 3 T 2 —70.69; OL 1 T 2 —71.06; OT 1 T 2 —70.10) were significantly ( P  < 0.05) higher than those of the untreated (AZ 1 T 1 —13.50; BN 3 T 1 —12.50; OL 1 T 1 —10.55; OT 1 T 1 —9.50). The degradation of petroleum hydrocarbon in the bio-augmented and bio-stimulated treatments increased with increasing time of incubation, and were higher than that of the untreated sample. Comparatively, the treatment with a combination of kenaf-core and rhamnolipid exhibited a significantly ( P  < 0.05) higher degradation rate than that of the treatment with only kenaf core or rhamnolipid. While, the bio-stimulated and bio-augmented treatments had appreciable microbial counts that are higher than that of the untreated. In conclusion, the nutrient-supplement with kenaf-core significantly enhanced microbial growth and activities in the soil, thus improving their ability to biodegrade petroleum hydrocarbons in the polluted soils. Thus, supplementing with Kenaf core to encourage microbiological degradation of petroleum hydrocarbon is recommended.

The biological effects and expected fate of the vast amount of oil in the Gulf of Mexico from the Deepwater Horizon blowout are unknown owing to the depth and magnitude of this event. Here, we report that the dispersed hydrocarbon plume stimulated deep-sea indigenous γ-Proteobacteria that are closely related to known petroleum degraders. Hydrocarbon-degrading genes coincided with the concentration of various oil contaminants. Changes in hydrocarbon composition with distance from the source and incubation experiments with environmental isolates demonstrated faster-than-expected hydrocarbon biodégradation rates at 5°C. Based on these results, the potential exists for intrinsic bioremediation of the oil plume in the deep-water column without substantial oxygen drawdown.