Diversity and degradative capabilities of bacteria and fungi isolated from oil-contaminated and hydrocarbon-polluted soils in Kazakhstan.

Bacteria and fungi were isolated from eight different soil samples from different regions in Kazakhstan contaminated with oil or salt or aromatic compounds. For the isolation of the organisms, we used, on the one hand, typical hydrocarbons such as the well utilizable aliphatic alkane tetradecane, the hardly degradable multiple-branched alkane pristane, and the biaromatic compound biphenyl as enrichment substrates. On the other hand, we also used oxygenated derivatives of alicyclic and monoaromatic hydrocarbons, such as cyclohexanone and p-tert-amylphenol, which are known as problematic pollutants.