Journal
APPLIED MICROBIOLOGY AND BIOTECHNOLOGY
Volume 97, Issue 17, Pages 7909-7918Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s00253-012-4500-7
Keywords
Hydrocarbon microseep; Methane-oxidizing bacteria; pmoA gene; T-RFLP; Real-time PCR
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Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [41202241, 41072099]
- State Key Laboratory of Petroleum Resources and Prospecting [prp/OPEN-1208]
- SINOPEC [P11058]
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Methane-oxidizing bacteria (MOB) have long been used as an important biological indicator for oil and gas prospecting, but the ecological characteristics of MOB in hydrocarbon microseep systems are still poorly understood. In this study, the activity, distribution, and abundance of aerobic methanotrophic communities in the surface soils underlying an oil and gas field were investigated using biogeochemical and molecular ecological techniques. Measurements of potential methane oxidation rates and pmoA gene copy numbers showed that soils inside an oil and gas field are hot spots of methane oxidation and MOB abundance. Correspondingly, terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism analyses in combination with cloning and sequencing of pmoA genes also revealed considerable differences in the methanotrophic community composition between oil and gas fields and the surrounding soils. Principal component analysis ordination furthermore indicated a coincidence between elevated CH4 oxidation activity and the methanotrophic community structure with type I methanotrophic Methylococcus and Methylobacter, in particular, as indicator species of oil and gas fields. Collectively, our results show that trace methane migrated from oil and gas reservoirs can considerably influence not only the quantity but also the structure of the methanotrophic community.
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