The marine isolate Novosphingobium sp. PP1Y shows specific adaptation to use the aromatic fraction of fuels as the sole carbon and energy source.

Novosphingobium sp. PP1Y, isolated from a surface seawater sample collected from a closed bay in the harbour of Pozzuoli (Naples, Italy), uses fuels as its sole carbon and energy source. Like some other Sphingomonads, this strain can grow as either planktonic free cells or sessile-aggregated flocks.

The thermophilic archaeon Sulfolobus solfataricus is able to grow on phenol.

Many eubacteria use aromatic molecules as a carbon and energy source, but only a few archaea have been reported to grow on aromatics. Degradation of aromatic hydrocarbons by aerobic bacteria is generally divided into an upper pathway, which produces dihydroxylated aromatic intermediates by the action of monooxygenases, and a lower pathway that processes these intermediates down to molecules that enter the citric acid cycle. Recently, analysis of the genome of the thermophilic archaeon Sulfolobus solfataricus revealed the existence of orfs coding for putative enzymes of the degradation pathway of aromatics, i.