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Oil slick: Pseudomonas to the rescue?

Pseudomonas to mitigate the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico? No kidding!

First, let me explain. I thought that it would be interesting (yet alarming) to see satellite images of the spill.

With that image in mind, of the oil slick in the ocean, I couldn't avoid thinking of the metallic sheen appearance of Pseudomonas colonies on agar plates, as two days ago I appreciated during plate rounds at the micro lab.

I laughed for my dorky free association, but then I read the article by Melvin Beal at 10 Connects with infographs and the ocean picture that said:

“… a bacteria that attaches to oil and uses it as a food source […] that consist of naturally occurring strains of pseudomonas…[…] may be a solution in the oil cleanup."

Pseudomonas?! Okay, you may have heard that already. But how cool! Google retrieves over 27,000 hits for the keywords, ‘Pseudomonas + oil spill.’

Breaking down crude oil as carbon source, Pseudomonas produces low molecular weight products, some of them called rhamnolipids. These are natural and effective biosurfactants (don’t give it to neonates though) that have been long studied for industrial and environmental applications, including the containment of oils spills.

The massive fix so far has failed. It may be time for the tiny Pseudomonas to give something in return for the daily punishment it has us used to.