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Assessment of the effects of hydrocarbon contamination on the sedimentary bacterial communities and determination of the polar lipid fraction purity: Relevance of intact phospholipid analysis

✍ Scribed by Nicolas Mazzella; Josiane Molinet; Agung Dhamar Syakti; Jean-Claude Bertrand; Pierre Doumenq


Publisher
Elsevier Science
Year
2007
Tongue
English
Weight
443 KB
Volume
103
Category
Article
ISSN
0304-4203

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✦ Synopsis


This in situ study reports on the relevance of intact phospholipids as new biomarkers and highlights the limits of the classical fatty acid analysis after the hydrolysis of the polar lipid fraction. The analysis of polar lipid fractions revealed significant contributions of marine macrophytes with either non-phospholipid compounds (sulfoquinovosyl diacylglycerol) or with both nonbacterial phospholipid classes (phosphatidylcholine) and non-bacterial phospholipid molecular species (some molecular species of phosphatidylglycerol). The analysis of intact phospholipids showed also the predominance of gram-negative bacteria in sediments whereas the analysis of fatty acids alone cannot confirm such information. Lastly, as regard to the effects of petroleum hydrocarbons on the sedimentary bacterial communities, we observed a higher degree of saturation of the fatty acyl chains of the phospholipids extracted from sediment exposed to a massive and chronic crude oil contamination. Such a result was interpreted as an adaptive response resulting in higher membrane rigidity of the bacterial communities.