Biodegradation of polycyclic Aromatic hydrocarbons by a bacterial consortium from Marine environment

Abstract

newlinePolycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons PAHs are ubiquitous, newlineCarcinogenic mutagenic and persistent environmental pollutants generated by newlinenatural combustion processes as well as from human activities newlineAnthropogenic inputs of PAHs from atmospheric deposition industrial stack newlineEmission crude oil production refining oil spills ship traffic urban runoff newlineand illegal discharge of industrial effluents have caused significant newlineaccumulation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons PAHs in marine newlineenvironments Crude oil is constituted from thousands of components which newlineare separated into saturates aromatics resins and asphaltenes Upon discharge newlineinto the sea crude oil is subjected to weathering the process caused by the newlinecombined effects of physical chemical and biological modification Saturates newlineespecially those of smaller molecular weight are readily biodegraded in newlinemarine environments Aromatics with one or two aromatic rings are also newlineefficiently biodegraded however those with four or more aromatic ring are newlinequite resistant to biodegradation newline newline