Multiple Degradation and Resistance Capabilities of Marine Bacteria Isolated from Niger Delta, Nigeria on Petroleum Pollutants and Heavy Metals

Aims: To determine multiple degradation and resistance capabilities of marine bacteria isolated from Rivers State, Nigeria on petroleum pollutants and heavy metals.

Study Design: Nine treatments and the controls designs were set up in triplicates containing 100 mL of sterile modified mineral basal medium in 250 mL conical flasks supplemented with 50, 100, 200 and 300 ppm of xylene, anthracene and pyrene each; 1 % of other petroleum pollutants and 300 ppm of heavy metals, nine marine hydrocarbon degraders and incubated at 24ºC for 5 - 7 days. The nine treatments and controls set ups designated as ANT1, XYL2, PYR3, ANT4, PYR5, ANT6, XYL7, XYL8, PYR9 and CTRL (Without hydrocarbons) were used to determine the multiple degradability of the marine bacteria.

Place and Duration of Study: Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Uli Nigeria between September, 2014 and March, 2017.

Methodology: A laboratory scale study was carried on six composite samples of the sediment and water samples from the three studied areas using enrichment, screening, selection, molecular, growth effect and substrate specificity techniques.

Results: The findings revealed that screening and selection for the indigenous bacterial isolates from the three studied areas resulted in the isolation of nine out of forty eight (9/48) of the potent strains representing 18.75 % of the total isolates with significant (P = .05) multiple degradation and resistance potentials but with different efficiencies on xylene, anthracene and pyrene, other petroleum products and heavy metals at 50 – 300 pm and 1 %. All the nine potent strains were fully characterized molecularly and phylogenetically and belong to the genera: Providencia, Alcaligenes, Brevundimonas, Myroides, Serratia, and Bacillus.

Conclusion: Thus, these selected potent bacterial strains could significantly contribute in the development of a cost - effective bioremediation process on aromatic hydrocarbons and heavy metals contaminated environments in Nigeria.