Isolation and Investigation of Biodegradation Potential of Multiple Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) Degrading Marine Bacteria near Bhavnagar Coast, India

Present work deals with modified isolation methods for indigenous microorganisms with a capability to use both low molecular weight (LMW) and high molecular weight (HMW)PAHs, which are pervasive recalcitrant pollutants. Methods such as biphasic enrichment, and specific isolation methods has resulted in the isolation of organisms such as Sphingomonas, Pseudomonas, Mycobacterium, Achromobacter, and Streptomyces species with efficacy to degrade majority of LMW PAHs up to 85% after four days of experiments, which is substantially rapid rate of degradation attributed by microorganisms. Moreover, the organisms had shown up to 30% degradation of HMW PAHs within the same time frame, making the isolation strategies more credible. The study thus, holds prime importance of conquering the difficulties in the isolation of multiple hydrocarbons degrading microorganisms, which can be further applied for the successful application for bioremediation of hydrocarbon impacted environments.