PETROLEUM UTILIZING BACILLUS SPP. FROM SOIL AT OIL SPRINGS, TEXAS

摘要

The first producing oil well in Texas was drilled at Oil Springs. The area is rich in natural petroleum seeps which have been present at least for several hundreds of years, making this an interesting site of chronic petroleum exposure. Crude oil seeps into the freshwater system at Oil Springs. Hydrocarbon degrading bacteria can be isolated from the floating oily mousse at these aquatic seeps (Benoit & Wiggers 1995). Strains of Pseudomonas, Flavobacterium, Alcaligenes and Erwinia have been described. These organisms grow rapidly on aliphatic hydrocarbons in vitro with little or no ability to use aromatics. The Erwinia isolate is unusual in that this genus is not a common hydrocarbon degrading bacterium.