Isolation and identification of crude oil-degrading bacteria from soil of some Khuzestan oil-rich regions

Objective In this research the ability of some bacteria isolated from oil contaminated areas in Khuzestan province in lowering oil contamination was studied. Materials and methods After primary isolation of some bacterial colonies with oil-degradation ability, eleven bacteria species called Lysobacter ruishenii strain CTN-1, Kocuria rosea strain CMS, Bacillus pseudomycoides strain NBRC, Delftia tsuruhatensis strain 332, Planomicrobium chinense strain NBRC, Acinetobacter junii strain ATCC, Cedecea lapagei strain DSM, Ochrobactrum intermedium strain CNS, Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain SNP, Chryseobacterium flavum strain CW-E 2and Streptomyces novaecaes strain NBRC via alignment of their 16S rRNA gene sequence with sequences existing in NCBI were identified. Then crude oil degradation ability of the bacteria and also their growth rate in liquid and solid minimum salt medium (MSM) containing 1 percent crude was measured. Results Although all of the isolated bacteria have the capability of crude oil degradation in different levels, Planmicrobium chinense, Ochrobactrum intermedium and Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria have higher growth rate and the degradation ability in the period of 15 days. Conclusions It seems that provided that doing some complementary researches, these bacteria can be used for decontamination of crude oil contaminated regions located in Khuzestan province.