Adaptation of the hydrocarbonoclastic bacterium Alcanivorax borkumensis SK2 to alkanes and toxic organic compounds: a physiological and transcriptomic approach.

ABSTRACT: The marine hydrocarbonoclastic bacterium Alcanivorax borkumensis is able to degrade mixtures of n-alkanes as they occur in marine oil spills. However, investigations of growth behavior and physiology of these bacteria when cultivated with n-alkanes of different chain lengths (C6 to C30) as the substrates are still lacking. Growth rates increased with increasing alkane chain length up to a maximum between C12 and C19, with no evident difference between even- and odd-numbered chain lengths, before decreasing with chain lengths greater than C19. Surface hydrophobicity of alkane-grown cells, assessed by determination of the water contact angles, showed a similar pattern, with maximum values associated with growth rates on alkanes with chain lengths between C11 and C19 and significantly lower v

SUBMITTER: Naether DJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3697512 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature