lindilenhleko98
My adopted bacterium is the Alcanivorax borkumensis. I'm fascinated by this bacterium as it is an oil eater, how cool is that!! Several millions of tons of oil soils the world seas every year, causing great ecological catastrophe. After extensive research, the bacterium A. borkumensis became the cleanup strategy.
A. borkumensis is a gram negative, rod-shaped, hydrocarbonoclastic ("oil eatiing") bacterium.
The Alcanivorax borkumensis thrives in halophilic, aerobic environments and is found in he upper layers of freshwater and marine environments. In unpolluted water, A. borkumensis is found in low numbers. This is due to the limited availability of nutrients, namely phosphorus and nitrogen. However, in oil-contaminated water, the addition of phosphorus and nitrogen allows A. borkumensis populations to thrive.
Here is an interesting video on the "oil eating" bacterium Alcanivorax borkumensis.
A. borkumensis can use n-alkanes, aliphatic hydrocarbons, volatile fatty acids and pyruvate as carbon and energy sources. When using only n-alkanes as carbon and energy sources, A. borkumensis produces extracellular and membrane-bound glucose lipids called biosurfactants. These biosurfactants are crucial to the biodegradation of oil because they reduce surface tension of water and act as natural emulsifiers to elute oil out of water, thereby making it available to biodegrade.
Imagine what the oceans would look like if it wasn't for the work of the Alcanivorax borkumensis. This is an oil spill in the BP Deepwater Horizon, it it said that this spill left tuna and other marine species with fatal heart defects and many other species dead. The A. borkumensis mitigates the effects of oil spills.
The Alcanivorax borkumensis could be, by far, the best strategy in the combat of oil spills in the ocean. I am convinced that this bacterium has superpowers. Just think of the many marine lives that it saves just by "eating" the oil.
There are some cons in having this bacterium, that fascinates me so much, clean up oil spills in the sea.
Dr. Riki Ott Interview, Ring of Fire (Mike Papanatonio, Esq.), September 25, 2010: The problem is that in our wisdom some of our scientists have decided to see if they could tinker with the genes of this bacteria to see if it could eat oil better. So now we have bio-engineered bacteria out there chomping oil. Does anybody have any idea what this does to people? Some of the medical community have found that these gram-negative bacteria, specifically Alcanivorax borkumensis, the super-bug, can cause a MRSA like infection.
