Marine Fungi as Novel Catalysts for Bioremediation of Oil Spills

摘要

Obligately marine fungi grew in artificial sea water with single hydrocarbons as their sole source of organic carbon and energy. The unsaturated compound 1,14-tetradecadiene and the methyl-branched compound pristane were used by several of the fungi. None of these fungi used aromatic hydrocarbons as their sole source of carbon. Two isolates, Corollospara lacera and C. maritima, were tested for growth on mixtures of hydrocarbons. Both cometabolized several aromatics while growing on glucose. C. maritima also cometabolized acenaphthalene, phenanthrane and dibenzothiophene while growing on hexadecane but not while growing on glucose. Aromatic hydrocarbons inhibited growth on glucose, and aromatic hydrocarbons were not cooxidized with glucose as growth substrate. The principal fatty acids of these organisms are 16:0, 18:0, 18:1n9 and 18:2n6. Of 11 isolates examined, one, a Lulworthia sp., contained a mitochondrial plasmid. Preliminary evidence suggests that four of five fungi examined form microbodies when the fungi are grown on hydrocarbons but not when they are grown on glucose.