HR: 0800h
AN: B21A-1013    [Abstracts]
TI: Isolation and Characterization of Ethane, Propane, and Butane Consuming Bacteria from Marine Hydrocarbon Seeps
AU: * Redmond, M C
EM: mredmond@umail.ucsb.edu
AF: Department of Earth Science, University of California, Santa Barbara, Building 526, Santa Barbara, CA 93106 United States
AU: Valentine, D L
EM: valentine@geol.ucsb.edu
AF: Department of Earth Science, University of California, Santa Barbara, Building 526, Santa Barbara, CA 93106 United States
AB: Three strains of ethane, propane, or butane consuming bacteria were isolated from marine hydrocarbon seep sediments at Coal Oil Point, off shore Santa Barbara, CA. These three isolates (MR1, MR2 and MR3) were capable of growth at natural environmental temperatures and salinity. Isolate MR2 was capable of growth on ethane or propane as the sole carbon source, isolate MR4 on propane or butane, and isolate MR3 on ethane, propane, or butane. All three isolates were also able to grow on other carbon-containing molecules, including ethanol, 1-propanol, 2-propanol, acetate, butyrate, sucrose, and dextrose, and isolates MR3 and MR4 were able to grow on 1-butanol and 2-butanol. None showed significant growth with methane, methanol, or formate as the sole carbon source. 16S rDNA sequencing indicated that isolate MR2 was most closely related to the gamma-Proteobacterium Pseudomonas stutzeri, while isolates MR3 and MR4 were both Gram-positive and most similar to Rhodococcus wratislaviensis and Rhodococcus opacus, respectively. Compared to methanotrophs, relatively little is known about the organisms that consume the C2-C4 alkanes, but both our isolates and the previously described species appear to be capable of metabolizing a wide variety of carbon compounds, including several common pollutants. The growth of these hydrocarbon-oxidizing bacteria on other organic compounds raises the possibility that the abundance and distribution of organic matter might be expected to impact the oxidation of C2-C4 hydrocarbons. Additional studies will further characterize the range of metabolism, and will investigate the importance of these organisms in natural hydrocarbon seep environments.
DE: 0414 Biogeochemical cycles, processes, and modeling (0412, 0793, 1615, 4805, 4912)
DE: 0465 Microbiology: ecology, physiology and genomics (4840)
DE: 4850 Marine organic chemistry (0470, 1050)
SC: Biogeosciences [B]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005