Degradation of Macondo 252 oil by endophytic Pseudomonas putida

Plant endophytic microbes, accustomed to the Macondo oil-spill environment, may be ideal candidates for crude-oil degradation, bioremediation and endophyte-assisted phytoremediation. We tested both single strain and bacteria consortia for their ability to degrade weathered crude oil, over 25 days, and found the single strain Pseudomonas putida (P. putida) exhibited the best performance for degrading all alkanes from C14 to C32 and 61.01% of the Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons (TPHs), but bacterial consortia did not degrade as much of the n-alkanes as the single strain, with TPHs degradation ranging from 28.4% to 51.5%. This is the first time the endophyte P. putida has been shown to improve the degradation of crude oil, demonstrating the potential of this strain to benefit biological remediation. We did not find any correlation between bio-surfactant production and oil degradation.