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. 1988 Jun;54(6):1612–1614. doi: 10.1128/aem.54.6.1612-1614.1988

Mineralization of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons by a bacterium isolated from sediment below an oil field.

M A Heitkamp 1, C E Cerniglia 1
PMCID: PMC202706  PMID: 3415226

Abstract

Microbiological analyses of sediments chronically exposed to petrogenic hydrocarbons resulted in the isolation of a gram-positive, rod-shaped bacterium which mineralized naphthalene (59.5% of the original amount), phenanthrene (50.9%), fluoranthene (89.7%), pyrene (63.0%), 1-nitropyrene (12.3%), 3-methylcholanthrene (1.6%), and 6-nitrochrysene (2.0%) to carbon dioxide when grown for 2 weeks in pure culture with organic nutrients. The bacterium tolerated salt concentrations up to 4% and grew well at 24 to 30 degrees C. The use of this bacterium may be an attractive alternative to existing physicochemical methods for the remediation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the environment.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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