Biodegradation of Aliphatic Hydrocarbon in Three Types of Crude Oil by Fusarium sp. F092 under Stress with Artificial Sea Water

The biodegradation of hydrocarbons in crude oil under saline stress needs to be investigated because degradation was generally lack or slow, whereas crude oil or petroleum hydrocarbons are major pollutants of marine environments. A natural isolate, Fusarium sp. F092, having the ability to degrade chrysene was used to degrade the aliphatic fraction in crude oil contaminating a liquid culture with artificial sea water (35). Three types of crude oil were used to perform these experiments. F092 showed the best performance to break down the aliphatic fraction in crude oil type-3 (98%) and type-2 (72%) and type-1 (49%) after 60 days with an initial concentration of 1000 mg L-1. Furthermore, almost all the aliphatic compounds (Up to C31) in the crude oil were degraded by F092 which preferred short and long chain hydrocarbons. Incubation with 15000 mg L-1 degraded less than 40% of the aliphatic fraction of all crude oils tested. The outstanding ability of Fusarium sp. F092 to adapt to artificial sea water and degrade the aliphatic fraction of all crude oils at high concentrations offers an alternative for bioremediation of crude oil-polluted marine environments.