Caracterización del potencial de degradación de compuestos xenobióticos por la rizobacteria Azospirillum brasilense

Pollution caused by hydrocarbons represents a risk to the environment. Several studies have focused on finding alternatives to help to prevent hydrocarbon pollution effect. One of them involves the use of native microorganisms capable of persisting on contaminated environments. Therefore, the objective of this work was to analyze the potential of biotypes of Azospirillum brasilense to degrade xenobiotic compounds such as phenanthrene, xylene, toluene and naphthalene. The production of biosurfactants was characterized, and the tolerance to petroleum contaminants was evaluated in vitro, the search for degradation of aromatic compounds related genes was done using the RAST program. The results showed that the strains produced biosurfactants and five of them were selected to test their tolerance to xylene, toluene, phenanthrene and naphthalene. Bacteria show no growth after 216 h incubation at 30 °C. 19 coding sequences were registered regarding to the degradation of aromatic compounds, 11 of them were associated to the metabolism of central aromatic intermediates and 5 were involved in peripheral catabolic pathways whose function is related to degradation pathways of quinate, benzoate, salicylate, gentisate and toluene.