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Molecular detection of marine bacterial populations on beaches contaminated by the Nakhodka tanker oil‐spill accident
Author(s) -
Kasai Yuki,
Kishira Hideo,
Syutsubo Kazuaki,
Harayama Shigeaki
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
environmental microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.954
H-Index - 188
eISSN - 1462-2920
pISSN - 1462-2912
DOI - 10.1046/j.1462-2920.2001.00185.x
Subject(s) - biology , flavobacterium , temperature gradient gel electrophoresis , cytophaga , sphingomonas , 16s ribosomal rna , contamination , oil spill , bacteria , marine bacteriophage , bacteroidetes , proteobacteria , microbiology and biotechnology , ecology , pseudomonas , environmental science , genetics , environmental engineering
In January 1997, the tanker Nakhodka sank in the Japan Sea, and more than 5000 tons of heavy oil leaked. The released oil contaminated more than 500 km of the coastline, and some still remained even by June 1999. To investigate the long‐term influence of the Nakhodka oil spill on marine bacterial populations, sea water and residual oil were sampled from the oil‐contaminated zones 10, 18, 22 and 29 months after the accident, and the bacterial populations in these samples were analysed by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) of PCR‐amplified 16S rDNA fragments. The dominant DGGE bands were sequenced, and the sequences were compared with those in DNA sequence libraries. Most of the bacteria in the sea water samples were classified as the Cytophaga – Flavobacterium – Bacteroides phylum, α‐ Proteobacteria or cyanobacteria. The bacteria detected in the oil paste samples were different from those detected in the sea water samples; they were types related to hydrocarbon degraders, exemplified by strains closely related to Sphingomonas subarctica and Alcanivorax borkumensis . The sizes of the major bacterial populations in the oil paste samples ranged from 3.4 × 10 5 to 1.6 × 10 6 bacteria per gram of oil paste, these low numbers explaining the slow rate of natural attenuation.