Unlocking and functional profiling of the bacterial communities in diesel tanks upon additive treatment

• Published in: Fuel (Guildford) Vol. 236; pp. 1311 - 1320
• Main Authors: da Fonseca, Marbella Maria Bernardes, Minnicelli, Carolina Fonseca, Silva-Portela, Rita de Cássia Barreto, de Farias, Mirna Ferreira, dos Santos, Paula Rafaela Silva, Fernandes, Glauber José Turolla, Agnez-Lima, Lucymara Fassarella
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 15-01-2019; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Biocide; Biocides; Biodeterioration; Burkholderia; Diesel; Diesel engines; Diesel fuels; Fuel storage; Fuel tanks; Genera; Metagenomics; Microbiomes; Microbiota; Microorganisms; Next generation sequencing; Operational problems; rRNA 16S; Storage tanks; Biodeterioration; Metagenomics; Diesel; Next generation sequencing; Biocide
• ISSN: 0016-2361; 1873-7153
• DOI: 10.1016/j.fuel.2018.09.107

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•Metagenomics provides insight into diesel tank microbiome.•Significant changes in the microbiota were not observed after biocides treatment.•NGS allowed to detect taxa and pathways possibly associated to biocide resistance.
Microbial growth inside fuel storage tanks causes serious financial and operational problems. We assessed the relationship of two biocides with the diesel microbiome in five storage tanks. After 35 days of treatment, 16S rDNA amplicon sequencing was performed. Sequences were clustered into operational taxonomic units using QIIME and metagenome functional profile was inferred using PICRUSt. Proteobacteria was the predominant phylum in all samples. In general, Burkholderia, Stenotrophomonas, Ralstonia, and Acinetobacter were the most abundant genera. Five less frequent genera and four pathways were differently distributed among groups (p < 0.05). Using next generation sequencing, it was possible to detect uncultured, less frequent diesel associated taxa and specific pathways possibly leading to biocide resistance. Despite being a currently used strategy in the management of diesel tanks to avoid biodeterioration, the biocides tested were not effective in causing significant changes in the microbiota.