Evaluation of phenanthrene degradation in seawater by an isolated bacterial consortium from the Gulf of Mexico

Phenanthrene is one of the components of the crude oil and the Gulf of Mexico's coastline region pose a high risk of oil spills. Since bacteria can be used to remediate these contaminated areas, the objective of this study was to isolate native bacteria from marine sediments of Campeche (Gulf of Mexico) to form a consortium and evaluate their ability to degrade phenanthrene (100 mg/L) using a gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) to quantified the degradation process. Molecular identification revealed five strains (Bacillus thuringiensis, Staphylococcus lugdunensis, Chromohalobacter, Halomonas, and Erythrobacter) with the ability to use phenanthrene as the sole carbon source. These strains were used to formulate a consortium in seawater that degraded 78.6% of phenanthrene in ten days.