Abstract
Bioremediation is one of the effective way to cleanup of soil and water hazardous pollutants because of less expensive and in situ implementation technology. Among many kinds of environmental pollutants, petroleum hydrocarbons such as gasoline, aviation fuels, diesel fuel and heating oil are generally used as a sole source of carbon and energy by microorganisms. Therefore, it is possible that petroleum is mineralized completely to CO2 and H2O by bioremediation, and there are many published studies which deal with petroleum-degrading bacteria. Until recently, we had limited knowledge about which microorganisms are the most important petroleum degraders in the environment due to the lack of suitable analytical method for nonculturable bacteria. Our understanding of bacterial-community dynamics during bioremediation is still in its infancy. This review deals with our growing understanding of the bacteria that are responsible for hydrocarbon removal in environments, and also of microbial degradation network, which involves many direct and indirect interactions with each other.
