Isolation and Characterization of Crude-Oil-Dependent Bacteria from the Coast of Ghana Using Oxford Nanopore Sequencing

Abstract

The utilization and improper use of crude oil have had irreparable damage on the environment and human populations. This study sought to isolate hydrocarbon utilizing bacteria from 1% v/v pristine seawater and 1% v/v crude oil using enrichment methods. Whole genome sequencing of DNA using the Oxford Nanopore sequencing technique with Fastq WIMP as the workflow at 3% abundance was undertaken. The results showed that the most abundant isolates identified using this technique at specific sampling sites were, Acinetobacter junii (51.9%), Alcanivarax pacificus (15.8%), Acinetobacter haemolyticus (21.6%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (23.4%), Alcanivorax xenomutans (24.7%), Alcanivorax xenomutans (23.0%) Acinetobacter baumannii (40.0%) and Acinetobacter junii (14.2%). Cumulatively, the most abundant isolates in the 8 sampling sites were Acinetobacter junii (17.91%), Alcanivorax xenomutans (11.68%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (7.68%), Escherichia coli (7.67%), Acinetobacter haemolyticus (3.40%), and Alkanivorax pacificus (3.10%). Spearman’s rank correlation analysis to examine the strength of relationship between the physicochemical parameters and type of bacteria isolated, revealed that salinity (0.8046) and pH (0.7252) were the highest. Isolated bacteria from pristine seawater, especially Escherichia coli have shown their capacity for bioremediating oil spill pollution in oceanic environments in Ghana.

Keywords: Jubilee oil, Coast of Ghana, hydrocarbon, bacteria, Sequencing