biodegradation of total petroleum hydrocarbons in contaminated soils using indigenous bacterial consortium

Background: biodegradation of hydrocarbon compounds is a great environmental concern due to their toxic nature and ubiquitous occurrence. in this study, biodegradation potential of oily soils was investigated in an oil field using indigenous bacterial consortium. methods: the bacterial strains present in the contaminated and non-contaminated soils were identified via dna extraction using 16s rdna gene sequencing during six months. furthermore, total petroleum hydrocarbons (tph) were removed from oil-contaminated soils. the tph values were determined using a gas chromatograph equipped with a flame ionization detector (gc-fid). results: the bacterial consortium identified in oil-contaminated soils (case) belonged to the families halomonadaceae (91.5%) and bacillaceae (8.5%), which was significantly different from those identified in non-contaminated soils (control) belonging to the families enterobacteriaceae (84.6%), paenibacillaceae (6%), and bacillaceae (9.4%). it was revealed that the diversity of bacterial strains was less in oil-contaminated soils and varied significantly between case and control samples. indigenous bacterial consortium was used in oil-contaminated soils without need for amplification of heterogeneous bacteria and the results showed that the identified bacterial strains could be introduced as a sufficient consortium for biodegradation of oil-contaminated soils with similar texture, which is one of the innovative aspects of this research. conclusion: an oil-contaminated soil sample with tph concentration of 1640 mg/kg was subjected to bioremediation during 6 months using indigenous bacterial consortium and a tph removal efficiency of 28.1% was obtained.