THE METAGENOMICS FOR CHOOSING MICROBIAL INSULATES PRODUCING BIOSSURFACTANTS AIMING AT IMPROVEMENT
Petroleum, metagenomics, microbial isolates, bioremediation.
Petroleum is a complex composition of hydrocarbons (saturated, aromatic, resins and asphaltenes) for the most part, in addition to a small portion of other compounds. It is one of the main sources of energy in the world and is important in several economic sectors. Due to the great exploitation of oil, during its processing, refining, transport and storage, worldwide problems can occur, causing enormous environmental impacts. Microorganisms demonstrate the ability to degrade oil, so bioremediation is a promising technique for remediation of these environments, as it is not polluting and represents less cost. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the production of biosurfactants by bacterial isolates aiming its application in advanced oil recovery - MEOR. To carry out this research, 4 isolates were used from the collection of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Genetics at UFRN. To evaluate the potential of the isolates to degrade hydrocarbons, assays of growth in rich medium and DCPIP were used. To evaluate the production capacity of biosurfactants, emulsion and dispersion tests were used. At the end of these analyzes, 4 isolates demonstrated production capacity and biosurfactants and hydrocarbon biodegradation. The assays for choosing the isolates were carried out, lacking only Metagenomics analysis to confirm the production of biosurfactants for use in MEOR. Currently, Metagenomics has proven to be a powerful tool in the analysis of the microbial composition in its microbiome, favoring the choice of the best bioremediation strategy.