Evidence for novel polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon degradation pathways in culturable marine isolates

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are common toxic and carcinogenic pollutants in marine ecosystems. Despite their prevalence in these habitats, relatively little is known about the natural microflora and biochemical pathways that contribute to their degradation. Approaches to investigate marine microbial PAH degraders often heavily rely on genetic biomarkers, which requires prior knowledge of specific degradative enzymes and genes encoding them. As such, these biomarker-reliant approaches cannot efficiently identify novel degradation pathways or degraders. Here, we screen 18 marine bacterial strains representing the Pseudomonadota, Bacillota, and Bacteroidota phyla for degradation of two model PAHs, pyrene (high molecular weight) and phenanthrene (low molecular weight). Using a qualitative PAH plate screening assay, we determined that 16 of 18 strains show some ability to degrade either or both compounds. Degradative ability was subsequently confirmed with a quantitative high-performance liquid chromatography approach, where an additional strain showed some degradation in liquid culture. Several members of the prominent marine Roseobacteraceae family degraded pyrene and phenanthrene with varying efficiency (1.2%–29.6% and 5.2%–52.2%, respectively) over 26 days. Described PAH genetic biomarkers were absent in all PAH degrading strains for which genome sequences are available, suggesting that these strains harbor novel transformation pathways. These results demonstrate the utility of culture-based approaches in expanding the knowledge landscape concerning PAH degradation in marine systems.