Microbial ecology of an acid polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon contaminated soil from a former gaswork manufacturing plant

Two PAH contaminated soils, one with pH 7 and one with pH 2 , sampled from a former gaswork plant were analyzed regarding microbial ecology and the presence of PAH utilizing bacteria. The soils were inhabited by different eubacterial communities based on DGGE 16S rRNA gene fingerprinting. From both soils, enrichment cultures were obtained utilizing pyrene or phenanthrene as source of carbon and energy at different pH . However, no pure PAH degrading strains could be recovered from these cultures except from one phenanthrene utilizing culture obtained at pH 7 from the neutral pH soil. Based on eubacterial DGGE fingerprinting, the cultures utilizing pyrene and phenanthrene from the low pH soil consisted of one bacterial strain and this for all pHs .