APPLICATION OF

BIOTECHONOLOGY IN OIL-
DECOMPOSING BACTERIA
FONG JEK IEE
 Oil Pollution
◦ Major hazard for marine and coastal
environments
◦ Main sources:
- Damage to oil tanker ships through
collisions with other ships, explosion or
wrecking
- Seepage from offshore installations
- Flushing of tanker holds
Effects of Oil Pollution
◦ Kills seaweeds and marine invertebrates such as molluscs, crustaceans and fish
◦ Worst effect towards birds:
- Oil penetrates and ,ats the feathers and this impairs flight.
- Birds covered in oil have difficulty swimming, many drown
- Heat insulation is lost
- Birds may die of hypothermia
- Oil can be taken into the stomach during preening and it can poison the birds and cause gut irritation
◦ Reduces the economic value of fisheries. Flesh tainted with oil becomes unacceptable for human
consumption and cannot be marketed
Method of cleaning up oil spill
◦ By placing genetically engineered strains of the bacteria, Pseudomonas, which can break down
four main groups of hydrocarbon present in the oil (xylenes, naphthalenes, octanes ad camphors)
◦ Relevant genes occur on plasmids of naturally occurring Pseudomonas strains. [act as
biosurfactant]
◦ No single strain contains all four plasmids
◦ All types of genes have been introduced into a single “ super bug”
- Bacteria is strayed onto oil-polluted surfaces
- This bacteria only work at the oil-water interface since they need oxygen
- Better suited to cleaning up this films of oil such as the one that cover rocks after a pollution
incident, rather than thick slicks of soil
◦ Another problem: slow at low temperature, unsuitable for use in cold climates.
THE END