Rhizosphere as a tool to introduce a soil-isolated hydrocarbon-degrading bacterial consortium into a wetland environment

An attempt to incorporate a soil-isolated bacterial consortium capable of degrading hydrocarbons into the sweet flag rhizosphere was made in order to introduce the plant-bacteria combination into a wetland environment. The colonization of the rhizosphere occurred after a diesel oil degradation trial, where the plant was inoculated with the bacterial consortium. Both plant and bacterial growth were monitored. The 16S rRNA gene sequences method was used to verify the presence of the soil-isolates in the plants internal tissues and TTC-dehydrogenase measurements were employed to assess the microbial activity. The incorporation of bacterial cells into the sweet flag rhizosphere resulted in an increased diesel oil removal efficiency (by 50%) and enhanced bacterial and plant growth. Afterwards, the colonized sweet flag rhizomes were planted within a lake shoreline to evaluate the long-term prevalence of microorganisms in the natural environment. The bacterial DNA of the oil-degrading consortium species was detected in the harvested plants even after 8 months.