Alcanivorax borkumensis (AB) is a marine bacterium that dominates bacterial communities around many oil spills because it uses oil as a nutrient source, and enzymatically degrades alkanes. To aid the degradation process following a spill, different dispersants have been used to produce oil-in-water emulsions. The additional surface area produced by emulsification provides greater access to the oil, and accelerates the degradation. Here, we use fluorescence and cryogenic scanning electron microscopy to examine the first critical part of the multistep biodegradation process - the attachment of AB to oil (hexadecane)-in-artificial sea water emulsions, stabilized either by surfactants released by AB, by Corexit EC9500A, by Tween 20 or by carbon black particles. When no dispersants were used, naturally produced surfactants allowed emulsification, and the AB attached to the hexadecane-water interfaces from the first day. When Corexit EC9500A was used, emulsion droplet sizes were small. AB did not attach to the oil droplets after 3 days, and only limited attachment was observed after 7 days. No AB attachment was observed when Tween 20 was used as the dispersant. However, the AB used Tween 20 as a nutrient source. AB attach easily to carbon black stabilized emulsions. Our results provide important information for the first step in the oil biodegradation process following a marine spill.

Attachment of Alcanivorax borkumensis to oil-in-water emulsion droplets stabilized by different dispersants

255th National Meeting (2018)

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