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In situ detection of anaerobic alkane metabolites in subsurface environments
Alkanes comprise a substantial fraction of crude oil and refined fuels. As such, they are prevalent within deep subsurface fossil fuel deposits and in shallow subsurface environments such as aquifers that are contaminated with hydrocarbons. These environments are typically anaerobic, and host divers...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2013
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3671572/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23761789 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2013.00140 |
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author | Agrawal, Akhil Gieg, Lisa M. |
author_facet | Agrawal, Akhil Gieg, Lisa M. |
author_sort | Agrawal, Akhil |
collection | PubMed |
description | Alkanes comprise a substantial fraction of crude oil and refined fuels. As such, they are prevalent within deep subsurface fossil fuel deposits and in shallow subsurface environments such as aquifers that are contaminated with hydrocarbons. These environments are typically anaerobic, and host diverse microbial communities that can potentially use alkanes as substrates. Anaerobic alkane biodegradation has been reported to occur under nitrate-reducing, sulfate-reducing, and methanogenic conditions. Elucidating the pathways of anaerobic alkane metabolism has been of interest in order to understand how microbes can be used to remediate contaminated sites. Alkane activation primarily occurs by addition to fumarate, yielding alkylsuccinates, unique anaerobic metabolites that can be used to indicate in situ anaerobic alkane metabolism. These metabolites have been detected in hydrocarbon-contaminated shallow aquifers, offering strong evidence for intrinsic anaerobic bioremediation. Recently, studies have also revealed that alkylsuccinates are present in oil and coal seam production waters, indicating that anaerobic microbial communities can utilize alkanes in these deeper subsurface environments. In many crude oil reservoirs, the in situ anaerobic metabolism of hydrocarbons such as alkanes may be contributing to modern-day detrimental effects such as oilfield souring, or may lead to more beneficial technologies such as enhanced energy recovery from mature oilfields. In this review, we briefly describe the key metabolic pathways for anaerobic alkane (including n-alkanes, isoalkanes, and cyclic alkanes) metabolism and highlight several field reports wherein alkylsuccinates have provided evidence for anaerobic in situ alkane metabolism in shallow and deep subsurface environments. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3671572 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2013 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-36715722013-06-11 In situ detection of anaerobic alkane metabolites in subsurface environments Agrawal, Akhil Gieg, Lisa M. Front Microbiol Microbiology Alkanes comprise a substantial fraction of crude oil and refined fuels. As such, they are prevalent within deep subsurface fossil fuel deposits and in shallow subsurface environments such as aquifers that are contaminated with hydrocarbons. These environments are typically anaerobic, and host diverse microbial communities that can potentially use alkanes as substrates. Anaerobic alkane biodegradation has been reported to occur under nitrate-reducing, sulfate-reducing, and methanogenic conditions. Elucidating the pathways of anaerobic alkane metabolism has been of interest in order to understand how microbes can be used to remediate contaminated sites. Alkane activation primarily occurs by addition to fumarate, yielding alkylsuccinates, unique anaerobic metabolites that can be used to indicate in situ anaerobic alkane metabolism. These metabolites have been detected in hydrocarbon-contaminated shallow aquifers, offering strong evidence for intrinsic anaerobic bioremediation. Recently, studies have also revealed that alkylsuccinates are present in oil and coal seam production waters, indicating that anaerobic microbial communities can utilize alkanes in these deeper subsurface environments. In many crude oil reservoirs, the in situ anaerobic metabolism of hydrocarbons such as alkanes may be contributing to modern-day detrimental effects such as oilfield souring, or may lead to more beneficial technologies such as enhanced energy recovery from mature oilfields. In this review, we briefly describe the key metabolic pathways for anaerobic alkane (including n-alkanes, isoalkanes, and cyclic alkanes) metabolism and highlight several field reports wherein alkylsuccinates have provided evidence for anaerobic in situ alkane metabolism in shallow and deep subsurface environments. Frontiers Media S.A. 2013-06-04 /pmc/articles/PMC3671572/ /pubmed/23761789 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2013.00140 Text en Copyright © 2013 Agrawal and Gieg. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in other forums, provided the original authors and source are credited and subject to any copyright notices concerning any third-party graphics etc. |
spellingShingle | Microbiology Agrawal, Akhil Gieg, Lisa M. In situ detection of anaerobic alkane metabolites in subsurface environments |
title | In situ detection of anaerobic alkane metabolites in subsurface environments |
title_full | In situ detection of anaerobic alkane metabolites in subsurface environments |
title_fullStr | In situ detection of anaerobic alkane metabolites in subsurface environments |
title_full_unstemmed | In situ detection of anaerobic alkane metabolites in subsurface environments |
title_short | In situ detection of anaerobic alkane metabolites in subsurface environments |
title_sort | in situ detection of anaerobic alkane metabolites in subsurface environments |
topic | Microbiology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3671572/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23761789 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2013.00140 |
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