Isolation of Crude Oil Degrading Marine Bacteria and Assessment for Biosurfactant Production

Ten bacterial isolates recovered from the crude oil contaminated sea water samples from a ship yard in Alang coast, Gujarat showed optimum growth in presence of crude oil. The crude oil degrading isolates were identified as species of genera Acinetobacter, Marinococcus, Micrococcus, Planococcus, Methylobacterium, Rhodococcus and Noccardia. All the ten isolates degraded 1% crude oil in Bushnell Haas broth. Highest biodegradation of crude oil was found to be 70% by the isolate M2 which belonged to genus Marinococcus. Other isolates showed biodegradation in the range of 55-30%. On addition of 1% Tween 80 biodegradation reduced in majority of cases. 70% of the bacterial isolates scored positive for biosurfactant production and emulsified toluene however emulsion stability varied drastically among the isolates. None of the biosurfactant producing bacterial isolates was hemolytic.