Bioballs carrying a syntrophic Rhodococcus and Mycolicibacterium consortium for simultaneous sorption and biodegradation of fuel oil in contaminated freshwater.

Nonpathogenic effective bacterial hydrocarbon degraders, Rhodococcus ruber S103, Mycolicibacterium parafortuitum J101 and Mycolicibacterium austroafricanum Y502, were isolated from mixed polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)-enriched river sediments. They possessed broad substrate specificities toward various PAHs and aliphatic compounds as sole carbon sources. These strains exhibited promising characteristics, including biosurfactant production, high cell hydrophobicity, biofilm formation and no antagonistic interactions, and contained genes encoding hydrocarbon-degrading enzymes.

Biodegradation of high concentrations of mixed polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons by indigenous bacteria from a river sediment: a microcosm study and bacterial community analysis.

This study assessed the biodegradation of mixtures of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) by indigenous bacteria in river sediment. Microcosms were constructed from sediment from the Chao Phraya River (the main river in Thailand) by supplementation with high concentrations of fluorene, phenanthrene, pyrene (300 mg kg of each PAH), and acenaphthene (600 mg kg). Fluorene and phenanthrene were completely degraded, whereas 50% of the pyrene and acenaphthene were removed at the end of the incubation period (70 days).