Degradation of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons During Decontamination of Oil-Polluted Soils: In Silico Approach

Abstract The main idea was to solve the problem related to oil contamination of soil using bioremediation with bioaugmentation with modelled microorganism strains. The paper aimed to develop a bacterial consortium for petroleum hydrocarbons degradation during biological treatment of oil-contaminated soils using electronic databases. The methodology of the research included analysis of the mechanisms and metabolic pathways of petroleum hydrocarbons degradation, and assessment of the possible reaction modulus and enzymatic systems for degradation of aromatic compounds. The taxonomic classification and review of metabolic pathways of oil compound transformation were carried out using electronic KEGG, MetaCyc and EzTaxon databases. The KEGG database was used to create a microbiological consortium of certain strains of bacteria that improved hydrocarbon degradation process performance. Identification of bacteria complete genome using Island Viewer 4 allowed to create of a consortium of oil-destructive bacteria consisting of such strains: Pseudoxanthomonas spadix BD-a59, Rhodococcus jostii RHA1, Rhodococcus aetherivorans IcdP1, Pseudomonas putida ND6, Pseudomonas stutzeri 19SMN4, Pseudomonas fluorescens UK4, Acinetobacter lactucae OTEC-02, Bacillus cereus F837/76.7.9. The ratio between the mentioned strains of microorganisms in the consortium was set at 20% : 20% : 15% : 10% : 10% : 5% : 5% : 15%. This bacterial consortium for aromatic hydrocarbons was created according to the metabolic information of basic enzymatic systems and predominant transformation of particular oil compounds, using BacDive database.