Degradation of polyaromatic hydrocarbons by organic solvent-tolerant bacteria from deep sea.

We isolated three organic solvent (OS)-tolerant bacterial strains DS-1051, DS-1902, and DS-313 from a depth of 1,168 m in Sagami Bay, Japan. These isolates were tolerant to various kinds of toxic OSs such as benzene, toluene, and p-xylene. They also could degrade polyaromatic hydrocarbons, naphthalene or biphenyl, in a medium-OS (9:1) two-liquid-phase system. Percentage degradation of polyaromatic hydrocarbons in OS by these strains were higher than those obtained from cultures in which substrates were in the medium without OS.