| Abstract | Three hydrocarbon-degrading psychrotrophic bacteria were isolated from petroleum-contaminated Arctic soils and characterized. Two of the strains, identified as Pseudomonas spp., degraded C₅ to C₁₂ n-alkanes, toluene, and naphthalene at both 5 and 25°C and possessed both the alk catabolic pathway for alkane biodegradation and the nah catabolic pathway for polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbon biodegradation. One of these strains contained both a plasmid slightly smaller than the P. oleovorans OCT plasmid, which hybridized to an alkB gene probe, and a NAH plasmid similar to NAH7, demonstrating that both catabolic pathways, located on separate plasmids, can naturally coexist in the same bacterium |
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