Alcanivorax borkumensis

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Alcanivorax borkumensis is an alkane-degrading marine bacterium which naturally propagates and becomes predominant in crude-oil-containing seawater when nitrogen and phosphorus nutrients are supplemented.



In our fossil-fuel age, oil spills remain a major problem. From the Exxon Valdez to the recent Prestige disaster in Spain, several million tons of oil soils the world's seas every year, causing ecological catastrophe. Scientists developing cleanup strategies have looked to the microbes that thrive in the wake of such spills as one solution. Now, thanks to a detailed breakdown of one of the most effective of these oil-eaters, they are closer to having biologically based remedies for such environmental disasters.

Alcanivorax borkumensis is a rod-shaped bacteria that relies on oil to provide it with energy. Relatively rare in unpolluted seas it quickly comes to dominate the marine microbial ecosystem after an oil spill, and it can be found throughout the world's oceans.

By sequencing the genome of this oil-eating microbe, the scientists hope to harness its power to help clean up future oil spills. They write, "the genome data and their functional analysis provides us with an invaluable knowledge base essential to design, develop, test and optimize rational strategies to mitigate the ecological damage caused by oil spills in marine systems."

 

References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcanivorax#:~:text=Alcanivorax%20borkumensis%20is%20an%20alkane,and%20phosphorus%20nutrients%20are%20supplemented. 

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/scientists-break-down-oil/

Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 6, 2020 at 7:48 AM

    The article paper is very informative and work the students done is 👍👍

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnunandNovember 9, 2020 at 11:58 PM

    It sure looks futuristic, I think it will be very helpful if we can understand and use the bio organism efficiently.

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownNovember 9, 2020 at 11:58 PM

    Very interesting and informative

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownNovember 10, 2020 at 12:40 AM

    very relevant and informative

    ReplyDelete
  5. UnknownNovember 10, 2020 at 12:41 AM

    Very relevant

    ReplyDelete

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