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Oil in the Sea IV: Inputs, Fates, and Effects (2022)

Chapter: Appendix I: Table of Common Hydrocarbon Degraders

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Suggested Citation: "Appendix I: Table of Common Hydrocarbon Degraders." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Oil in the Sea IV: Inputs, Fates, and Effects. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26410.

Appendix I

Table of Common Hydrocarbon Degraders

TABLE I.1 Some Commonly Detected Marine Hydrocarbon-Degrading Bacteria (Aerobic Degraders Unless Otherwise Indicated)

Preferred Substrate(s)	Organism Name	Typical Marine Environment	Comments	Selected Citations
ALIPHATICS
Methane	Methylomonas spp.	Natural gas seeps	Obligate methanotroph. Enriched in Deepwater Horizon plume during methane depletion	Dubinsky et al., 2013
n-Alkanes C₉–C₃₂; iso-alkanes (e.g., isoprenoids); alkyl components of alkyl-cycloalkanes and alkyl aromatics	Alcanivorax borkumensis	Ubiquitous in marine ecosystems (water, sediment, coastal, deep sea); rare in pristine waters; DNA detected in polar areas but only isolated from more temperate environments	Obligate hydrocarbonoclastic species; produces biosurfactants, forms emulsions; early responder; widespread; found in partnership with marine invertebrates; often early to bloom in response to oil	Yakimov et al., 1998, 2007; Dutta and Harayama, 2001; Gregson et al., 2019; Joye and Kostka 2020; Van Landuyt et al., 2020
Methane and liquid alkanes	Candidatus Macondimonas diazotrophica	Oil-contaminated marine sediments worldwide	Bloomed in Gulf of Mexico after Deepwater Horizon to 30% of total sediment microbes; N₂ fixer	Karthikeyan et al., 2019
Gaseous and liquid n-alkanes; cycloalkanes	Order Oceanospirillales: Oceanospirillum Oceaniserpentilla Bermanella	Cold marine waters	Various genera dominant during Deepwater Horizon spill; genes for mono-aromatic and PAH degradation detected but expressed poorly	Mason et al., 2012; Kleindienst et al., 2016; Hu et al., 2017
Alkanes	Oleibacter spp.	Temperate water; deep water (Mariana Trench)	Only one species has been cultivated; others detected using ‘omics	Lofthus et al., 2018; Liu et al., 2019; Schreiber et al., 2021
Alkanes	Oleiphilus messinensis	Sponge symbiont	Obligate hydrocarbonoclastic species	Golyshin et al., 2002; Yakimov et al., 2007
Alkanes	Oleispira antarctica	Cold water and high latitudes; sea ice	Psychrophilic; may also degrade Corexit 9500A components	Yakimov et al., 2003; Kube et al., 2013; Boccadoro et al., 2018; Lofthus et al., 2018; McFarlin et al., 2018
>C16 n-alkanes; Isoprenoids (e.g., squalane) n-Alkanes	Alkanindiges illinoisensis	Few reports in marine systems; Arctic beach, marine biofilms	Obligate hydrocarbonoclastic species	Røberg et al., 2011; Vergeynst et al., 2019a
>C16 n-alkanes; Isoprenoids (e.g., squalane) n-Alkanes	Thalassolituus oleivorans	Marine waters and sediments	Obligate hydrocarbonoclastic species; particularly associated with cold oil biodegradation; degrades nC₁₀–nC₃₂ but not pristane	Yakimov et al., 2004 Brakstad et al. 2015b; Gregson et al., 2018; Shtratnikova et al., 2018
n-Alkanes	Halomonas neptunia Halomonas titanicae	Cold marine (deep sea and Antarctic surface water)	Produces bio-emulsifier when growing on hydrocarbon	Pepi et al., 2005; Van Landuyt et al., 2020

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Preferred Substrate(s)	Organism Name	Typical Marine Environment	Comments	Selected Citations
n-Alkanes	Zhongshania spp.	Cold marine water	Early responder in cold seawater, possibly specializing in short- to medium-chain alkanes	Ribicic et al., 2018; Murphy et al., 2021
n-Alkanes	Paraperlucidibaca	Cold marine water	Metagenome detected in sub-Arctic marine sediments incubated with diesel or crude oil	Murphy et al., 2021
n-Alkanes	Desulfosarcina/Desulfococcus clade	Marine seeps	Anaerobic degradation via sulfate reduction	Kleindienst et al., 2014
AROMATICS WITH OR WITHOUT ALIPHATICS
Aromatics including PAHs and PACs; also ethane, propane, butane	Cycloclasticus spp.	Global distribution	Obligate hydrocarbonoclastic bacterial genus; associated with dilbit degradation by ‘omics	Kasai et al., 2002; Yakimov et al., 2007; Brakstad et al. 2015b; Messina et al., 2016; Rubin-Blum et al., 2017; Gutierrez et al., 2018; Murphy et al., 2021; Schreiber et al., 2021
PAH and long-chain alkanes	Marinobacter spp.	Ubiquitous	Form biofilms and produce emulsifiers; tolerates high salt concentrations	Gauthier et al., 1992; Yakimov et al., 2007; Brakstad et al. 2015b Laio et al., 2015; Murphy et al., 2021
PAH and various alkanes	Pseudoalteromonas	Global distribution; versatile heterotroph	Enriched in cold North Sea water microcosms with oil	Chronopoulou et al., 2015
Short-chain alkanes (C₂–C₄), benzene, PAHs	Colwellia spp.	Global distribution, but certain strains are adapted to cold marine water and sea ice; also detected in deep sea sediments	Associated with marine oil snow; possibly sensitive to hydrostatic pressure; may metabolize dispersant components	Bælum et al. 2012; Redmond and Valentine, 2012; Dubinsky et al., 2013; Mason et al., 2014a,b; Brakstad et al., 2015b; Barbato and Scoma, 2020
PAH	Dietzia spp.	Arctic seafloor sediments; Antarctic sediments	Predominant sequence in 16S marker gene survey; degrades phenanthrene and emulsifies diesel	Dong et al., 2015; Ausuri et al., 2021

NOTE: A more comprehensive list of hydrocarbon-degrading prokaryotes, including from terrestrial and freshwater sources, has been prepared by Prince et al. (2018).