Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi,
I'm doing a science project on bioremediation. I am thinking about using Alcanivorax borkumensis. I understand it is very expensive but I am willing to pay. I am working with a mentor so he will be able to acquire the bacteria. I need to know the limitations of the bacteria. Does it only live in salt water or can it live in fresh water? Is there a way to tell if the bacteria is present in water without sending a sample to a lab?

Hi there

Great idea for a project, and it is a very relevant one at that.

Alcanivorax borkumensis is whats called a halophilic organism, meaning it can survive in salt rich environments. I do not know if it is only found in salt water, some references I have found place it in inland bodies of water, which typically have a lower salt concentration, and the ever useful microbe wiki places it in fresh water as well. I will continue to research that and try to provide you with a solid source.

As far as determining if it is present in a water sample, this would most likely require a lab. It may be possible to plate a sample of your water and grow whatever was in there, then maybe expose those grown colonies to oil, in a manner similar to the way bacteria is tested for antibiotic sensitivity. Or attempt to grow a colony on a plate containing oil.

The problem then becomes determining if oil or other petroleum products actually kill off bacteria other than A. borkumensis. From an initial reading it seems as if the reason it thrives around oil is the nutrients that is can extract nutrients from a spill, and not that it can survive a toxic environment that would kill other microbes (in regards to oil).

Otherwise plating a water sample would just tell you that bacteria was or was not present, not necessarily which types were present. There are manuals out there that can tell you how to drill down different colonies by using different growth media or other treatments. One great resource when dealing with microbes is the Bergey’s Manual. It will give you information about living conditions, nutrients, growth media, etc. It is usually in every library near a University. I am attaching a link of what is essentially a table of contents for you to check out.

http://www.uiweb.uidaho.edu/micro_biolo ... charts.pdf

http://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php/MicrobeWiki

Please feel free to write back with any questions.

Mark

Thank you for your reply. I will continue to research about the bacteria and possibly call different companies that sell the bacteria.

Hello there,

Bioremediation is a really cool area to explore! What are you planning to do with your project specifically? Are you going to be doing all of your experiments outside of a laboratory setting? Because if you are planning to purchase the bacteria and culture it, it may require a laboratory with the proper incubator and shaker, since studies I've found on this bacterium seem to mention that it is grown at 30 degrees with agitation in a certain defined medium. This is something to keep in mind if you are planning to grow the bacteria and do experiments with it!

Out of curiosity, why are you trying to determine if the bacteria is present within a water sample? Are you planning to collect samples from different water sources and compare the prevalence of the bacteria between different water samples? That would be really cool to see if there is a certain "aquatic habitat" that the bacteria prefer! I think Mark mentioned a good point that you can probably trying plating out the water samples, and probably use a certain growth medium (perhaps with the addition of certain chemicals and/or nutrients that only Alcanivorax borkumensis can utilize), so that any bacteria that cannot grow within an environment comprised of these factors will not show up in your culture and that you're hopefully specifically selecting for the growth of Alcanivorax borkumensis. Alternatively, if you do happen to have access to a laboratory, the easiest way to determine if Alcanivorax borkumensis is present in your water samples is to use a technique called PCR, in which you can specifically set up a reaction to amplify a fragment of the Alcanivorax borkumensis genome--if your fragment of interest is present within a certain water sample, then it indicates that Alcanivorax borkumensis should be present, given that your fragment of interest is highly specific to Alcanivorax borkumensis and not to other bacteria. If you want to learn more about PCR, this wikipedia article does a pretty decent job at describing the procedure: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymerase_chain_reaction. Let us know if you have anymore questions!

Best of luck on your project!

Connie