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© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

The Gulf of Mexico (GoM) is an important source of oil for the United States and Mexico. There has been growing interest, particularly after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, in characterizing the fungal diversity of the GoM and identifying isolates for use in the bioremediation of petroleum in the event of another spill. Most studies have focused on light crude oil bioremediation processes, while heavy crude oil (HCO) and extra-heavy crude oil (EHCO) have been largely ignored. In this work, we evaluated the ability of fungal isolates obtained from deep-sea sediments of the Mexican economic exclusive zone (EEZ) of the GoM to degrade HCO (16–20° API) and EHCO (7–10° API). Alternaria sp., Penicillium spp., and Stemphylium sp. grew with HCO as the sole carbon source. Remarkably, Alternaria sp. was the only isolate able to grow with EHCO as the sole carbon source, degrading up to 25.6% of the total EHCO and 91.3% of the aromatic fraction, as demonstrated by gas chromatography analysis of the saturate, aromatic, and polar fractions. These findings proved to be significant, identifying Alternaria sp. as one of the few fungi reported so far capable of degrading untreated EHCO and as a suitable candidate for bioremediation of EHCO in future studies.

Details

Title
Extra-Heavy Crude Oil Degradation by Alternaria sp. Isolated from Deep-Sea Sediments of the Gulf of Mexico
Author
Romero-Hernández, Lucia 1 ; Velez, Patricia 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Betanzo-Gutiérrez, Itandehui 3 ; Camacho-López, María Dolores 1 ; Vázquez-Duhalt, Rafael 3 ; Riquelme, Meritxell 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo 

 Departamento de Microbiología, Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada (CICESE), Ensenada, Baja California 22860, Mexico; [email protected] (L.R.-H.); [email protected] (M.D.C.-L.) 
 Departamento de Botánica, Instituto de Biología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad de México 04510, Mexico; [email protected] 
 Centro de Nanociencias y Nanotecnología (CNyN), Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Baja California 22860, Mexico; [email protected] (I.B.-G.); [email protected] (R.V.-D.) 
First page
6090
Publication year
2021
Publication date
2021
Publisher
MDPI AG
e-ISSN
20763417
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2549269751
Copyright
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.