Spatial and temporal variation of phenanthrene-degrading bacteria in intertidal sediments
- Univ. of Massachusetts, Boston, MA (United States)
Phenanthrene-degrading bacteria were isolated from a 1-m{sup 2} intertidal sediment site in Boston Harbor. Samples were taken six times over 2 years. A total of 432 bacteria were isolated and characterized by biochemical testing. When clustered on the basis of phenotypic characteristics, the isolates could be separated into 68 groups at a similarity level of approximately 70%. Several groups corresponded to well-characterized species belonging the genera Vibrio and Pseudomonas. Only 51 of the 437 isolates hybridized to a DNA probe that encodes the upper pathway of naphthalene and phenanthrene degradation in Pseudomonas putida NCIB 9816. A cluster analysis indicated that the species composition of the phenanthrene-degrading community changed significantly from sampling date to sampling date. At one sampling time, 12 6-mm-diameter core subsamples were taken within the 1-m{sup 2} site to determine the spatial variability of the degrading communities. An analysis of molecular variance, performed with the phenotypic characteristics, indicated that only 6% of the variation occurred among the 12 subsamples, suggesting that the subsamples were almost identical in composition. The authors concluded that the communities of phenanthrene-degrading bacteria in the sediments are very diverse, that the community structure undergoes significant change with time but does not vary significantly on a spatial scale of centimeters, and that the predominant genes that encode phenanthrene degradation in the communities are not well-characterized.
- OSTI ID:
- 642323
- Journal Information:
- Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Vol. 64, Issue 7; Other Information: PBD: Jul 1998
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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