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Title: Assessment of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill impact on Gulf coast microbial communities

Journal Article · · Frontiers in Microbiology
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [3];  [3];  [4];  [3];  [3];  [5];  [6]
  1. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Earth Sciences Division. Ecology Dept.; Juniata College, Huntingdon, PA (United States) Biology Dept.
  2. Juniata College, Huntingdon, PA (United States) Biology Dept.
  3. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Earth Sciences Division. Ecology Dept.
  4. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Earth Sciences Division. Ecology Dept.; Florida State Univ., Tallahassee, FL (United States). Dept. Earth, Ocean and Atompheric Science
  5. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Earth Sciences Division. Ecology Dept.; Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States). Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering; Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Biosciences Division
  6. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Earth Sciences Division. Ecology Dept.; USDOE Joint Genome Institute (JGI), Walnut Creek, CA (United States)

One of the major environmental concerns of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was the ecological impact of the oil that reached shorelines of the Gulf Coast. Here we investigated the impact of the oil on the microbial composition in beach samples collected in June 2010 along a heavily impacted shoreline near Grand Isle, Louisiana. Successional changes in the microbial community structure due to the oil contamination were determined by deep sequencing of 16S rRNA genes. Metatranscriptomics was used to determine expression of functional genes involved in hydrocarbon degradation processes. In addition, potential hydrocarbon-degrading Bacteria were obtained in culture. The 16S data revealed that highly contaminated samples had higher abundances of Alpha- and Gammaproteobacteria sequences. Successional changes in these classes were observed over time, during which the oil was partially degraded. The metatranscriptome data revealed that PAH, n-alkane, and toluene degradation genes were expressed in the contaminated samples, with high homology to genes from Alteromonadales, Rhodobacterales, and Pseudomonales. Notably, Marinobacter (Gammaproteobacteria) had the highest representation of expressed genes in the samples. A Marinobacter isolated from this beach was shown to have potential for transformation of hydrocarbons in incubation experiments with oil obtained from the Mississippi Canyon Block 252 (MC252) well; collected during the Deepwater Horizon spill. The combined data revealed a response of the beach microbial community to oil contaminants, including prevalence of Bacteria endowed with the functional capacity to degrade oil.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER). Biological Systems Science Division
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1628106
Journal Information:
Frontiers in Microbiology, Vol. 5; ISSN 1664-302X
Publisher:
Frontiers Research FoundationCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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