Isolation and Molecular identification of Phenol tolerating bacteria from petroleum contaminated sites

Abstract

This research was conducted to isolate and identify phenol tolerating bacteria from petroleum contaminated sites. Two bacterial species were isolated from petroleum contaminated sites (NWPK and NWPKD). The isolation was based on morphological, microscopic and molecular identification. The total viable counts of phenol utilizing bacteria from NWPK and NWPKD are 2.71x10⁷ and 4.0x10⁶ cfu/g respectively. The isolates showed capacity of phenol tolerance at 500 mg/L, 1000 mg/L and 1500 mg/L when grown on phenol tolerant nutrient agar. The NWPK showed its capacity to tolerate phenol at 2.3x10⁷, 2.5x10⁷ and 1.0x10⁷ cfu/g of 500, 1000 and 1500 mg/L of phenol concentration respectively while NWPKD tolerate 1.5x10⁷, 3.8x10⁷ and 1.0x10⁷ cfu/g of 500, 1000 and 1500 mg/L of phenol respectively. The isolates were identified as Citrobacter and Acinetobacter species respectively based on 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. These isolates showed their ability to withstand and survive high phenol concentrations in the environment.