A moderately thermophilic and mercaptan-degrading Bacillus licheniformis strain CAN55 isolated from gas-washing wastewaters of the phosphate industry, Tunisia

A moderately thermophilic bacterium, designated strain CAN55, was isolated from the gas-washing wastewaters of the phosphate industry, located in Sfax, Tunisia, after enrichment on 1-decanethiol, a mercaptan used as the sole carbon and energy source. Strain CAN55 belonged to the Bacillus genus and was closely related to Bacillus licheniformis, with 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity of 99.2%. It was able to degrade 83% of 1-decanethiol (3 mM), and 39% of decyl disulfide, the product of spontaneous autoxidation, after 14 days of incubation at 55 °C, and without yeast extract added. Strain CAN55 was also capable of degrading 70% of 1-dodecanethiol (3 mM) after 14 days of incubation at 55 °C. During the growth on decanethiol and dodecanethiol, the decrease of surface tensions of cell-free culture supernatants from 55.1 to 40 mN/m and from 56.1 to 41 mN/m, respectively, after 26 h of incubation at 55 °C, was an agreement with the production of biosurfactant(s). In addition, strain CAN55 degraded 1-heptanethiol and cyclohexylmercaptan thus suggesting that this isolate may be useful for the bioremediation of mercaptan contaminated sites.