Biotechnologies for Marine Oil Spill Cleanup: Indissoluble Ties with Microorganisms
Open accessAbstract
The ubiquitous exploitation of petroleum hydrocarbons (HCs) has been accompanied by accidental spills and chronic pollution in marine ecosystems, including the deep ocean. Physicochemical technologies are available for oil spill cleanup, but HCs must ultimately be mineralized by microorganisms. How environmental factors drive the assembly and activity of HC-degrading microbial communities remains unknown, limiting our capacity to integrate microorganism-based cleanup strategies with current physicochemical remediation technologies. In this review, we summarize recent findings about microbial physiology, metabolism and ecology and describe how microbes can be exploited to create improved biotechnological solutions to clean up marine surface and deep waters, sediments and beaches.
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An imbalanced C/N/P ratio occurs after pollutant spills.
“This is due to the imbalanced C/N/P ratio that occurs after pollutant spills [228].”
From Harnessing bacterial consortia for effective bioremediation: targeted removal of heavy metals, hydrocarbons, and persistent pollutants (2025) · cites this paper as [228]
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Solute accumulation in the deep-sea bacterium Photobacterium profundum
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Qattan, S. Y. A. (2025) · Environmental Sciences Europe · doi:10.1186/s12302-025-01103-y · Cited by 109 · see citing works
Narwal, N., Katyal, D., Kataria, N., Rose, P. K., Warkar, S. G., Pugazhendhi, A., Ghotekar, S., & Khoo, K. S. (2023) · Chemosphere · doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2023.139945 · Cited by 105 · see citing works
- Authors
- Mapelli, F., Scoma, A., Michoud, G., Aulenta, F., Boon, N., Borin, S., Kalogerakis, N., & Daffonchio, D.
- Affiliations
- University of Milan (IT)
- Ghent University (BE)
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (SA)
- Water Research Institute (IT)
- Technical University of Crete (GR)
- Corresponding author
- Daffonchio, Daniele
- ORCID
- Venue
- Trends in Biotechnology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2017-09
- Volume
- 35
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- 860-870
- ISSN
- 0167-7799 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2613720899
- Cited by
- 214
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 14 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 27 · 2022: 33 · 2021: 32 · 2020: 24 · 2019: 26 · 2018: 17 · 2017: 1
- FWCI
- 0.88
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Trends in biotechnology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Ghent University Academic Bibliography (Ghent University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Archivio Istituzionale della Ricerca (Universita Degli Studi Di Milano) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology Repository (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Funders
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Pollution › Microbial bioremediation and biosurfactants
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Pollution › Oil Spill Detection and Mitigation
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology
- Keywords
- marine oil spill cleanup, petroleum hydrocarbon degradation, hydrocarbon-degrading microorganisms, microbial communities, bioremediation, microbial ecology, marine sediment
- MeSH terms
- Biodegradation, Environmental, Biotechnology, Seawater, Water Microbiology, Water Pollutants, Chemical, Water Purification, Petroleum Pollution
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