Previous Article | Next Article ![]()
Applied and Environmental Microbiology, April 1999, p. 1477-1482, Vol. 65, No. 4
School of Biological Sciences, University of
Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588-0666,1 and
George C. Page Museum of La Brea Discoveries, Los Angeles,
California 900362
Received 14 October 1998/Accepted 3 January 1999
Helaeomyia petrolei larvae isolated from the asphalt
seeps of Rancho La Brea in Los Angeles, Calif., were
examined for microbial gut contents. Standard counts on
Luria-Bertani, MacConkey, and blood agar plates indicated ca.
2 × 105 heterotrophic bacteria per larva. The
culturable bacteria represented 15 to 20% of the total
population as determined by acridine orange staining. The gut
itself contained large amounts of the oil, had no observable ceca, and
maintained a slightly acidic pH of 6.3 to 6.5. Despite the ingestion of
large amounts of potentially toxic asphalt by the larvae,
their guts sustained the growth of 100 to 1,000 times more bacteria
than did free oil. All of the bacteria isolated were nonsporeformers
and gram negative. Fourteen isolates were chosen based on
representative colony morphologies and were identified by using the
Enterotube II and API 20E systems and fatty acid analysis. Of
the 14 isolates, 9 were identified as Providencia rettgeri
and 3 were likely Acinetobacter isolates. No
evidence was found that the isolates grew on or derived nutrients from
the asphalt itself or that they played an essential role in insect
development. Regardless, any bacteria found in the oil fly larval gut
are likely to exhibit pronounced solvent tolerance and may be a future
source of industrially useful, solvent-tolerant enzymes.
The number and variety of extreme
environments occupied by microbes suggest that there are very few
naturally sterile sites on earth. Because of this, we were intrigued by
the biotechnology potential of any microbes found in the larval gut of
the oil fly, Helaeomyia petrolei (formerly Psilopa
petrolei). Thorpe (25) referred to the oil fly as
"undoubtedly one of the chief biological curiosities of the world."
The adults are found around natural oil seeps and in pools of viscous
waste oil near commercial oil fields (10, 25). The larvae
are exclusively found submerged in the oil, where they ingest large
quantities of oil and asphalt. Even though the larval guts are visibly
full of the petroleum, the larvae cannot subsist on oil alone. Rather,
nutritional experiments (25) showed that the oil fly
larvae quickly devoured any animal matter present in the oil.
Under natural conditions, insects and other arthropods trapped in the
sticky oil are the chief source of food (25). Furthermore,
during the summer the surface temperature of the oil often rises to 37 to 38°C. Regardless of its presumed toxicity and
temperature fluctuations, the larvae suffer no ill effects from the crude oil (25) as long as they can reach
the surface of the oil to acquire air.
Petroleum technologists knew about oil pool maggots for many years
prior to their being described by Coquillet (6) in 1899 as a
new species of the Ephydridae genus Psilopa. The oil fly was
later studied carefully by Thorpe (25, 26) but has been totally ignored by biologists since then. In particular, there have
been no reports on the microbes associated with oil fly larvae. We
decided to examine oil fly larvae obtained from the Rancho La Brea
asphalt seeps in Los Angeles, Calif. This decision was made for two
reasons. First, the oil flies are stably established in this location
(10), having been observed continuously for more than a
hundred years, whereas in other locations their appearance can be
sporadic. A stable population of oil fly larvae in one location would
be most likely to have arisen as a result of selected for a defined
microbial gut flora. The presence of fossilized extinct animal remains
at Rancho La Brea has led to estimations that these asphalt seeps have
been in existence for at least 40,000 years (22). Second,
the "oil" at Rancho La Brea is an extremely viscous asphalt,
roughly one-third of whose composition by weight includes the
high-molecular-weight branched molecules classified as asphaltenes.
There is an abundance of microbes able to metabolize the
straight-chain C8-C16 hydrocarbons; however,
there is still a shortage of microbes able to degrade either
asphaltenes or polyaromatic hydrocarbons. The asphalt seeps at Rancho
La Brea provide an ideal environment for the selection of such
hydrocarbon-degrading organisms.
Furthermore, any hydrocarbon-degrading microbes isolated from oil fly
larval guts would perforce be solvent tolerant since the guts are
completely filled with asphalt. Environments containing high
concentrations of organic solvents are considered extreme environments
(1), and bacteria able to tolerate organic solvents have
recently been recognized as a subgroup of the extremophiles (1). To the extent that solvent tolerance is beneficial for bioremediation, it would seem easier to start with solvent-tolerant microbes rather than to carry out time-consuming enrichments to get
them (11). This expectation seemed reasonable since the oil
fly larvae themselves tolerate 50% turpentine or 50% xylene (mixed
with equal parts crude oil) with no apparent ill effects (25). Additionally, as originally discussed by Thorpe
(25), the digestive enzymes of larvae or their microbial gut
floras are active in environments heavily laced with aromatic petroleum compounds, and there has recently been a great deal of interest in
enzymes which can maintain their activity in organic solvents (20). The present paper reports on the microbial content of surface-sterilized oil fly larvae obtained from the Rancho La Brea
asphalt seeps and two other locations in southern California over
the past 4 years.
(A preliminary account of this work appeared earlier
[21]).
Collection and maintenance of oil fly larvae.
Larvae were
supplied by one of us (C.A.S.). Samples containing three to five
H. petrolei larvae were shipped overnight in plastic camera
film cases containing enough Rancho La Brea asphalt to cover the inner
surface of the container. Shipping larvae in larger quantities of oil
resulted in the death of the larvae. On arrival, the film containers
were opened and placed on their side in large (150-mm-diameter) sterile
plastic petri plates. Additional larva-free oil was used to fill the
bottoms of the petri dishes to a sufficient depth for larval motility
(1 to 2 cm). Less viscous oil supplements, such as linoleic acid,
glycerol, and mineral oil, were not able to sustain larval viability;
the larvae gradually showed decreased motility and died. The petri dishes containing the oil and larvae were enclosed in a 25- by 25-cm
Styrofoam box that was sealed with plastic wrap to maintain the
freshness of the volatile Rancho La Brea oil. Larvae were fed
approximately 40 mg of egg meat medium (Difco, Detroit, Mich.) every
other day. Larvae remained viable for at least 2 weeks under these conditions.
Surface sterilization.
Larvae were removed from the oil with
a sterile wooden stick. Active larvae cast a shimmering light on the
surface of the oil, pinpointing their location for collection.
Retrieval of inactive larvae was impossible. To ensure surface
sterility, each of the larvae captured was placed in 1 ml of
autoclaved linoleic acid (ca. 60%; Sigma, St. Louis, Mo.) and
vortexed at low speed. The linoleic acid was replaced repeatedly and
vortexing was continued until all oil was removed from the larvae. At
this time, the larvae appeared translucent. Each larva was washed twice
in filter-sterilized 70% ethanol for 4 min, immersed in a solution of
15% hypochlorite containing 0.1% (vol/vol) Tween 20 for 4 min, and
then rinsed twice in sterile phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) containing
0.1% Triton X-100 or Tween 20 (pH 7.0) for 4 min. Most larvae remained active after this surface sterilization protocol, and these active larvae were used immediately. As a control for the effectiveness of
surface sterilization, larvae were placed on Luria-Bertani (LB) agar
plates and allowed to crawl for 1 to 2 min. If inactive, the larvae
were rolled across the plate with sterile forceps. The plates were
incubated at 37°C and examined after 24 h. No ( Bacterial counts.
Larvae were placed in a sterilized
handheld Potter-Elvehjem homogenizer containing 2.5 ml of sterile PBS
(pH 7.0) and homogenized for 5 min or until all the larval
contents appeared evenly suspended. Samples were diluted 10-, 100-, and
1,000-fold in PBS, and 0.1 ml was plated in triplicate. For the larvae
collected in 1994 and 1995, five larvae were homogenized together and
samples were plated onto a rich medium containing 0.02% yeast extract,
0.2% peptone, 0.02% NH4NO3, 0.01% glucose,
0.2% meat extract, and 1.2% agar (YEPM). For the 1997 experiments,
single larvae were homogenized and plated onto LB agar (Miller) from
Difco (lot 97500JK), 0.1× LB agar (Miller), MacConkey agar plus
lactose with bromcresol purple from BBL (lot 907658), or blood agar
from Remel, Inc., Lenexa, Kans. All plates contained 1.5% agar and
were incubated at 37°C for 24 h. Total bacterial counts were
conducted by direct epifluorescence microscopy with acridine orange as
described by Murray et al. (18).
Rancho La Brea asphalt viable counts.
A glob of asphalt was
added to a preweighed sterile microcentrifuge tube so that its weight
could be determined by difference. Sterile linoleic acid (1 ml) was
added, and the tubes were heated to 37°C and vortexed extensively.
Samples were diluted in PBS containing 0.1% Tween 20 and plated in
triplicate on both nutrient agar and Trypticase soy agar plates.
Nitrogen-fixing organisms.
The medium used to isolate any
nitrogen-fixing organisms present was a modification of nitrogen-fixing
marine medium (3). It contained 0.02 g of
MgSO4 · 7H2O, 0.01 g of
CaCl2 · 2H2O, 0.015 g of
K2HPO4, 0.01 g of
Na2CO3, 1.5 mg of citric acid, 1.5 mg of FeCl3 · 6H2O, 0.25 mg of disodium
potassium EDTA, 0.5 g of glucose, 0.5 ml of glycerol, and 5 g
of Noble agar per 500 ml, in addition to 5 ml of a trace metals
solution containing 1.43 g of H3BO3, 0.91 g of MnCl2 · 4H2O, 0.11 g
of ZnSO4 · 7H2O, 0.04 g of
CuSO4 · 5H2O, 0.0015 g of
Na2MoO4 · 2H2O, and 0.025 g
of CoCl2 · 6H2O per liter. One whole
larva was surface sterilized and homogenized as described above.
Dilutions of 100- and 1,000-fold were made, and 0.1 ml of each was
plated in triplicate on the nitrogen-free medium. Plates were incubated
at 30°C for 48 h.
Assay for hydrocarbon oxidizers.
Isolation of hydrocarbon
oxidizers present in the larvae was done on the nitrogen-fixing medium
outlined above with the addition of 0.1% hydrocarbon. The hydrocarbons
assayed were palmitic acid, benzoic acid (sodium salt), linoleic acid,
and naphthalene. With the exception of naphthalene, all hydrocarbons
were incorporated directly into the agar of the nitrogen-fixing medium.
For the naphthalene assay, nitrogen-fixing medium was poured into
sterile glass petri plates. After inoculation, one naphthalene pellet was placed on the petri plate glass cover, and the plate was inverted and incubated. Larvae were sterilized and homogenized as described above. Ten- and 100-fold dilutions were plated in triplicate for each
hydrocarbon and incubated at 30°C. For all plate counts, CFU were
enumerated and, when applicable, cell morphology is described. Fourteen
different colony morphologies were observed. Cultures were maintained
on stock plates of tryptic soy agar and blood agar plates that were
streaked for isolation every 3 weeks. Liquid cultures of each isolate
were grown overnight in tryptic soy broth, after which 1 ml of culture
was placed in cryovials containing 70 µl of dimethylsulfoxide and
stored at Growth characteristics of H. petrolei microbial
isolates.
A single isolated colony of each of the 14 representative isolates was chosen and aseptically transferred with a
sterile toothpick onto blood agar, MacConkey agar plus lactose, tryptic
soy agar, and LB agar in duplicate. Each plate was divided into 15 equal sections, one for each isolate and one to serve as the negative control. The same sterile toothpick was used to transfer a portion of a
single colony onto all four media in the following order: blood agar,
MacConkey agar plus lactose, tryptic soy agar, and LB agar. The
toothpick was placed into the parent colony each time prior to
depositing cells onto the plate. A single sterile toothpick was stabbed
into each of the media at section 15. The plates were incubated at 30 and 37°C for 24 h.
Biochemical tests.
Isolates were Gram stained, and a
presumptive identification was obtained for each with the Enterotube II
system from BBL, Becton Dickinson, Inc., and API 20E strips from
bioMérieux Vitek, Inc., Hazelwood, Mo.
Fatty acid analysis.
Nineteen representative isolates were
chosen based on morphology and BBL Enterotube identification, isolated
on appropriate media, and sent to MIDI Labs (Newark, Del.) for
identification based on fatty acid composition.
Morphological examination of oil fly larval guts.
The mean
weight of 19 larvae sampled was 3.3 mg, with a standard deviation of
1.1 mg. The larvae ranged from 0.5 to 1 mm in diameter and from 5 to 12 mm in length. The large variation observed is likely due to the larvae
examined being in multiple instars, although attempts to identify
successive instars were unsuccessful. Once the viscous black oil was
removed, the larvae were translucent, allowing direct
observation of the larval gut. An extensively looped digestive tract
occupying ca. 50% of the total larval volume was plainly visible. No
ceca were found. The absence of ceca is important because, if
present, they could have contained a distinct population of
microbes, as has been observed for other insects (7).
Dissection of the larvae exposed a small foregut that comprised only a
minor percentage of the total gut followed by a highly looped midgut
that represented the majority of the total gut. The hindgut was a short
saclike section extending to the anus. The foregut appeared to function
as an esophagus. Ingested petroleum entered the midgut as very dark
boluses that dispersed and lightened as they passed through the
digestive tract, appearing clear upon arrival at the anus.
Estimation of gut pH.
Gut pH values for the translucent larvae
were determined as described previously by Walther et al.
(27) for Aedes aegypti larvae. The pH indicator
dyes bromophenol blue, chlorophenol red, and bromothymol blue were fed
to viable larvae. As the dyes passed through the anterior midgut,
posterior midgut, and hindgut, the dye colors were observed by
microscopy (Table 1). The color change of
bromothymol blue from blue to yellow indicates a gut pH that does not
exceed 6.5, while the red color with chlorophenol red (Table 1)
indicates a gut pH of ca. 6.3 to 6.6. Thus, oil fly guts appear to have
a slightly acidic pH. The larvae remained healthy throughout; they did
not appear to be damaged in any way by the pH indicator dyes. Similar
measurements could not be made for the gut redox potential because the
redox indicator dyes tested were toxic to the oil fly larvae.
Identifying a slightly acidic gut pH in healthy larvae is significant
because many lepidopteran and dipteran insects have strongly alkaline
larval guts, ranging from pH 10 to 12 (8), and we wanted our
bacterial plating conditions to reflect the larval gut conditions
accurately.
0099-2240/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Microbiology of the Oil Fly, Helaeomyia
petrolei


![]()
ABSTRACT
Top
Abstract
Introduction
Materials and Methods
Results
Discussion
References
![]()
INTRODUCTION
Top
Abstract
Introduction
Materials and Methods
Results
Discussion
References
![]()
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Top
Abstract
Introduction
Materials and Methods
Results
Discussion
References
1) colonies
were observed, except in those locations where the crawling larvae had
excreted frass.
80°C.
![]()
RESULTS
Top
Abstract
Introduction
Materials and Methods
Results
Discussion
References
TABLE 1.
Measurement of oil fly larval
gut pHa
Quantifying the presence of microbes in the oil fly gut.
Surface-sterilized larvae collected at three different sites (Rancho La
Brea, Santa Paula, and Ojai in Los Angeles County, Calif.) over a
period of 4 years were examined for the presence of culturable aerobes
and facultative anaerobes (Table 2). Each of the larvae had between 105 and 106 CFU. The
numbers were compared by analysis of variance. For the samples plated
on YEPM, LB agar, and MacConkey agar, the results (P = 0.11) indicated no significant difference in culturable microbes per larva, based on either the sample site or time of collection. Somewhat higher bacterial counts were detected with blood agar plates
(Table 2). In the October 1994 samples, acridine orange direct-count
analysis of 10 larvae indicated that there were ca. 8.6 × 105 ± 1.1 × 105 total microbes per whole
surface-sterilized larva. The same batch of larvae contained ca.
1.4 × 105 CFU per larva (Table 2). Therefore, the
number of culturable microbes represented 16% of the total microbial
population. This value is comparatively high for an environmental
sample. Atlas and Bartha (4) concluded that counts obtained
by direct epifluorescence microscopy are typically 2 orders of
magnitude higher than counts obtained by cultural techniques.
|
Comparison of plating media and colony morphology.
The viable
counts reported in Table 2 indicate the number of bacterial
heterotrophs present. In this regard, it did not seem to matter whether
the bacteria were plated on YEPM, MacConkey agar plus lactose, tryptic
soy agar, or LB agar; the CFU detected were very similar. However,
slightly higher numbers were found on blood agar plates (Tables 2 and
3). Blood agar plates had been found to
be superior to peptone-based agars for the isolation of all Proteeae,
including Providencia (13). Of the three media used to enumerate the 1997 samples, blood agar did give the highest number of CFU, while MacConkey agar plus lactose gave the greatest variety of colony morphologies (Table 3). Eight different colony morphologies were recognized (Table 3). After 24 h at 37°C, the 2-mm pale tan colonies were the most abundant morphology on both LB and
MacConkey agar whereas a very small pinpoint colony was the most
abundant morphology on blood agar plates (Table 3). Based on their
colony morphology, 14 of the isolated colonies were chosen for
identification. Of these 14, all but 1 (OF004B) formed colonies of
equal sizes on each of the other nutrient-rich media used in the
experiment whose results are shown in Table 3. OF004B did not grow on
MacConkey agar. Thus, the CFU detected (Table 2) seem not to be
influenced by the medium type chosen except for the small pinpoint
translucent colony type (OF002L), which had a low plating efficiency on
MacConkey agar and a high plating efficiency on blood agar (Table 3).
Indeed, the differences in the total counts detected with the three
media (Table 3) were primarily due to differences in the plating
efficiency for this colony type.
|
Bacterial identification.
Three systems were used for the
presumptive identification of the 14 1997 isolates (Table
4). These were the BBL Enterotube II
system, the API 20E system, and fatty acid analysis as conducted by
MIDI Labs. The Enterotube system revealed that six of the isolates were
either Providencia rettgeri or Providencia
stuartii, and three were likely Acinetobacter isolates
(Table 4). Three of the isolates could not be identified with the
Enterotube system. Similarly, the API 20E system revealed that nine of
the isolates were P. rettgeri, one was Morganella
morganii, one was either a Klebsiella or a
Yersinia isolate, and the other three (the three which had
been identified as Acinetobacter isolates with the
Enterotube system) were nonenteric (Table 4). OF005B had the same API
20E profile as P. rettgeri HM-1, which had been
isolated by Jackson et al. (12) from an insect-pathogenic
nematode. Based on their Gram stain, colony morphology, and metabolic
characteristics, 12 of the 14 isolates were chosen for further
classification based on their fatty acid profiles. Fatty acid analysis
identified five of the isolates as Proteus species, two as
P. rettgeri, one as M. morganii, and one as
Shewanella putrefaciens (Table 4). Overall, the MIDI
classification resulted in different identifications than those deduced
by the Enterotube biochemical tests. They were, however, very close to
the API 20E identifications, especially when one considers that the
next most likely identification for strains OF009B through OF012M was
P. rettgeri (Table 4). Taxonomically, Proteus, Providencia, and Morganella
are very closely related genera (12).
|
|
Screening for nitrogen fixation and aromatic-hydrocarbon catabolism. Each of the larvae sampled in 1997 was examined for the presence of bacteria capable of nitrogen fixation. They each contained an average of 7.0 × 103 nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Thus, ca. 1% of the culturable bacteria were nitrogen-fixing bacteria. We also looked for bacteria with specific degradative capabilities. However, in no case did we find bacteria able to grow on benzene, toluene, naphthalene, anthracene, phenanthrene, chrysene, benzopyrene, or camphor as the sole source of carbon and energy. However, ca. 40% of the 1994 isolates were able to grow on short-chain alkanes such as dodecane, and all of the 1997 isolates were able to grow on hexane. The tests for possible degradation of aromatic compounds were also conducted on the basal medium of Stanier et al. (24), and thus, it is unlikely that the absence of growth was due to an unfulfilled metal or vitamin requirement. Many times low levels of bacterial growth were observed on the first passage through a catabolic test medium, e.g., phenanthrene only, but no growth was found on subsequent passages through the same medium. We believe that the low levels of growth found initially resulted from larval components released during homogenization and carried over through the dilution series prior to plating.
| |
DISCUSSION |
|---|
|
|
|---|
We have shown that oil fly larvae in nature contain ca. 2 × 105 heterotrophic bacteria. This value seems roughly constant for larvae collected at three locations over a period of 4 years. The bacteria detected are neutrophiles, facultative or obligate aerobes, and nonsporeformers, and almost all are gram negative. No fungi were found. It is difficult to distinguish whether the bacteria found in an insect gut system are symbionts (persistent) or transients. However, we know that the detected bacteria grow in oil fly larvae because, on a per-weight basis, the number of bacteria in the oil inside the larval gut has roughly 100 to 1,000 times more CFU than would be expected from the bacterial load of the free oil ingested. Of course, cause-and-effect comparisons are difficult because the bacteria found in free oil may have resided previously in one of the larvae.
P. rettgeri and Acinetobacter spp. are the dominant bacteria identified in the 1997 samples. Nine of the 14 isolates were identified as P. rettgeri, and the 3 nonenteric isolates (OF002L to OF004B) are likely Acinetobacter organisms. Given the fact that nine different colony morphologies turned out to be P. rettgeri, it is reassuring that Providencia strains are well known to produce many distinct colony morphologies on agar media (13) and that P. rettgeri itself has five biotypes and 84 O antigens (13). Therefore, we do not believe that the bacteria detected are symbionts or clonal. The Enterotube and API identifications found five and six different metabolic profiles, respectively, among the bacteria designated P. rettgeri (Table 4). Providencia is an important human pathogen noted for its extreme resistance to common disinfectants, antibiotics, and heavy metals (13). Indeed, there are very few Providencia isolates obtained from nonhuman sources (13), although P. rettgeri has been isolated from an insect-pathogenic nematode (12). However, the prominence of Acinetobacter spp. among the bacteria isolated from oil fly larvae (Tables 4 and 5) comes as no surprise. They are among the most prevalent hydrocarbon-utilizing bacteria, and they grow well at oil-water interfaces (9). They are of industrial interest because they produce an extracellular polysaccharide emulsifier called emulsan which has proven useful for the in situ biodegradation of oil pollutants (9).
So far we have no evidence that the bacteria detected contribute to insect physiology. Only wild-type larvae were available for these experiments, and thus, we could not study germ-free larvae, which would have been possible if we could have started with oil fly eggs. Additionally, we have no direct evidence that the bacteria detected metabolize any part of the thick asphalt in which they reside; we have been unable to detect gut bacteria able to metabolize aromatic compounds. This observation is consistent with Thorpe's conclusion (25) that oil fly larvae cannot subsist on oil alone. It is, of course, still possible that a consortium of gut bacteria would be able to degrade these aromatic hydrocarbons even though individual bacteria cannot. It is also possible that some of the nonculturable bacteria have aromatic-hydrocarbon-degrading ability.
Our current view of the bacteria found in oil fly larval guts is as follows. (i) Oil fly larvae are carnivores whose chief source of food is other insects or animals trapped in the sticky oil. (ii) As this food is digested, the nitrogen-rich nutrients released make the larval gut (pH 6.5) suitable for the growth of any bacteria which happen to be there. Thus, the bacterial numbers are ca. 1,000 times greater than in free oil (a low-nitrogen environment), and the bacteria detected grow nicely on peptone-based media (Table 3). The comparatively low number of nitrogen-fixing bacteria detected (ca. 1%) is consistent with the majority of the bacteria sharing a carnivore's high-nitrogen diet. (iii) Bacteria growing in the larval gut must tolerate the selective pressure of the oil which is also present. Thus, the bacteria found are almost exclusively gram negative. Dormant Bacillus spores might be present in the free oil, but their vegetative cells would still not be able to grow in the larval gut. (iv) The identity of the gram-negative bacteria found is not constant; it is not clonal, and it does not constitute a population of symbionts for the insect. Chapman (5) concluded that insects with straight, simple digestive tracts, i.e., no ceca, tend to contain the fewest microbes and that these microbes are probably acquired with ingested food. The oil fly larval gut is an open system, and the diversity of bacteria detected (Tables 4 and 5) reflects the diversity of bacteria initially present on the insects or animals which became trapped in the sticky oil, thus becoming food for the oil fly larvae.
In this regard, it is quite reasonable to find P. rettgeri in the carnivorous oil fly larvae. Jackson et al. (12), while studying the transfer of Photorhabdus spp. by insect-pathogenic nematodes, noticed that the majority of Heterorhabditis spp. contained a second bacterial species, P. rettgeri, which was itself highly pathogenic to insects. Thus, the P. rettgeri found in the oil fly larvae may have actively contributed to their initial introduction to the oil by killing their previous insect host. In this view, the bacteria found free in the oil are really transient members of the oil flora more than they are transient members of the larval gut flora. This explanation parallels the hypothesis put forward by Kjelleberg et al. (14) for bacteria found growing slowly or not at all in the water column, i.e., that they might grow much more rapidly in the guts of ingesting invertebrates.
We note that Thorpe's (25) description of oil fly larvae states "that the hind gut contains enormous numbers of bacteria-like bodies. They are Gram positive, and approximately 1 µm in length." Thorpe's conclusion that they were gram positive appeared to have been based on in situ staining of sectioned hindguts with Murray's toluidine blue (25). Our study detected gram-negative, not gram-positive, bacteria. The reason for this apparent contradiction has not been determined. It is possible that we would not have detected the gram-positive bacteria seen by Thorpe because they were nonculturable under our plating conditions. Alternatively, Thorpe (25) may have observed a cross section through the microvilli of the insect's gut cells. Such sections often exhibit regular cell structures 1 to 2 µm in diameter with no nuclei visible (17).
Lipophilic hydrocarbons are harmful to bacteria because they accumulate in membrane lipid bilayers, thus affecting the structural and functional properties of those membranes (23). Our finding that almost all of the bacteria in oil fly larvae are gram negative agrees with the generalization of Aono and Inoue (1) that gram-negative bacteria show higher levels of organic-solvent tolerance. It also agrees with the conclusions of Kramer et al. (15, 16) that only gram-negative bacteria tolerate high levels (5 to 25%) of anionic detergents such as sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). Since the cytoplasmic membrane is the primary site of cellular damage by both organic solvents (23) and SDS (19), the outer membrane serves to reduce the periplasmic concentration of these harmful chemicals to an acceptable level. For SDS, Nickerson and Aspedon used [35S]SDS to show that Enterobacter cloacae cells growing in 5% SDS had periplasmic SDS levels of ca. 0.15% (19). The situation with organic solvents is likely similar. Aono et al. (2) observed that for Escherichia coli JA300 growing in the presence of n-hexane or cyclohexane, the outer membrane appeared intact and undamaged, but the cytoplasmic membrane was damaged such that cytoplasmic ribosomes had leaked into the periplasm. Thus, we hypothesize that bacteria which are adapted to oil fly larval guts (Table 3) should be an excellent source of enzymes which tolerate organic solvents. Their periplasmic enzymes should be moderately solvent tolerant, while their extracellular enzymes should be highly solvent tolerant.
| |
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
|---|
This work was supported in part by grants from the University of Nebraska Research Council, the University of Nebraska Biotechnology Center, and the Consortium for Plant Biotechnology Research.
| |
FOOTNOTES |
|---|
* Corresponding author. Mailing address: School of Biological Sciences, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68588-0666. Phone: (402) 472-2253. Fax: (402) 472-8722. E-mail: KWN{at}unlinfo.unl.edu.
Present address: Food Science & Technology, University of Nebraska,
Lincoln, NE.
Present address: College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa
City, IA.
§ Present address: Department of Microbiology, Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine, Midwestern University, Glendale, AZ 85308.
| |
REFERENCES |
|---|
|
|
|---|
| 1. | Aono, R., and A. Inoue. 1998. Organic solvent tolerance in microorganisms, p. 287-310. In K. Horikoshi, and W. D. Grant (ed.), Extremophiles: microbial life in extreme environments. Wiley-Liss, New York, N.Y. |
| 2. | Aono, R., H. Kobayashi, K. Joblin, and K. Horikoshi. 1994. Effects of organic solvents on growth of Escherichia coli K 12. Biosci. Biotechnol. Biochem. 58:2009-2014. |
| 3. | Atlas, R. M. 1993. Handbook of microbiological media. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Fla. |
| 4. | Atlas, R. M., and R. Bartha. 1993. Microbial ecology: fundamentals and applications, 3rd ed. Benjamin-Cummings, Redwood City, Calif. |
| 5. | Chapman, R. F. 1982. The insects, structure and function, 3rd ed. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass. |
| 6. | Coquillet, D. W. 1899. Description of a new Psilopa. Can. Entomol. 31:8. |
| 7. | Douglas, A. E., and C. B. Beard. 1996. Microbial symbioses in the midgut of insects, p. 419-431. In M. J. Lehane, and P. F. Billingsley (ed.), Biology of the insect midgut. Chapman and Hall, London, England. |
| 8. |
Dow, J. A. T.
1992.
pH gradients in lepidopteran midgut.
J. Exp. Biol.
172:355-375 |
| 9. | Gutnick, D. L., R. Allon, C. Levy, R. Petter, and W. Minas. 1991. Applications of Acinetobacter as an industrial microorganism, p. 411-441. In K. J. Towner, E. Bergogne-Bérézin, and C. A. Fewson (ed.), The biology of Acinetobacter. Plenum Press, New York, N.Y. |
| 10. | Hogue, C. L. 1974. Insects of the Los Angeles basin. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, Calif. |
| 11. | Inoue, A., and K. Horikoshi. 1989. A Pseudomonas thrives in high concentrations of toluene. Nature 338:264-266. |
| 12. | Jackson, T. J., H. Wang, M. J. Nugent, C. T. Griffin, A. M. Burnell, and B. C. A. Dowds. 1995. Isolation of insect pathogenic bacteria, Providencia rettgeri, from Heterorhabditis spp. J. Appl. Bacteriol. 78:237-244. |
| 13. | Janda, J. M., and S. L. Abbott. 1998. The enterobacteria. Lippincott-Raven, Philadelphia, Pa. |
| 14. | Kjelleberg, S., K. B. G. Flardh, T. Nystrom, and D. J. W. Moriarty. 1993. Growth limitation and starvation of bacteria, p. 289-320. In T. E. Ford (ed.), Aquatic microbiology, an ecological approach. Blackwell, Oxford, England. |
| 15. |
Kramer, V. C.,
D. M. Calabrese, and K. W. Nickerson.
1980.
Growth of Enterobacter cloacae in the presence of 25% sodium dodecyl sulfate.
Appl. Environ. Microbiol.
40:973-976 |
| 16. | Kramer, V. C., K. W. Nickerson, N. V. Hamlett, and C. O'Hara. 1984. Prevalence of extreme detergent resistance among the Enterobacteriaceae. Can. J. Microbiol. 30:711-713[Medline]. |
| 17. | Lee, K., and K. W. Nickerson. Unpublished data. |
| 18. | Murray, R. G. E., R. N. Doetsch, and C. F. Robinow. 1994. Determinative and cytological light microscopy, p. 21-41. In P. Gerhardt, R. G. E. Murray, W. A. Wood, and N. R. Krieg (ed.), Methods for general and molecular bacteriology. American Society for Microbiology, Washington, D.C. |
| 19. | Nickerson, K. W., and A. Aspedon. 1992. Detergent-shock response in enteric bacteria. Mol. Microbiol. 6:957-961[Medline]. |
| 20. |
Ogino, H.,
K. Miyamoto, and H. Ishikawa.
1994.
Organic-solvent-tolerant bacterium which secretes organic-solvent-stable lipolytic enzyme.
Appl. Environ. Microbiol.
60:3884-3886 |
| 21. | Plantz, B., T. Kokjohn, and K. Nickerson. 1995. Microbiology of the petroleum fly, abstr. I-7, p. 318. In Abstracts of the 95th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology 1995. American Society for Microbiology, Washington, D.C. |
| 22. | Shaw, C. A., and J. P. Quinn. 1986. Rancho LaBrea: a look at coastal southern California's past. Calif. Geol. 39:123-133. |
| 23. |
Sikkema, J.,
J. A. M. de Bont, and B. Poolman.
1995.
Mechanisms of membrane toxicity of hydrocarbons.
Microbiol. Rev.
59:201-222 |
| 24. |
Stanier, R. Y.,
N. J. Palleroni, and M. Doudoroff.
1966.
The aerobic pseudomonads: a taxonomic study.
J. Gen. Microbiol.
43:159-271 |
| 25. | Thorpe, W. H. 1930. The biology of the petroleum fly (Psilopa petrolei). Trans. Entomol. Soc. Lond. 78:331-344. |
| 26. |
Thorpe, W. H.
1931.
The biology of the petroleum fly.
Science
73:101-103 |
| 27. |
Walther, C. J.,
G. A. Couche,
M. A. Pfannenstiel,
S. E. Egan,
L. A. Bivin, and K. W. Nickerson.
1986.
Analysis of mosquito larvicidal potential exhibited by vegetative cells of Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis.
Appl. Environ. Microbiol.
52:650-653 |
This article has been cited by other articles:
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology. For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»