Isolation, Molecular Identification and Amino Acid Profiling of Single-Cell-Protein-Producing Phototrophic Bacteria Isolated from Oil-Contaminated Soil Samples

In the current study, soil samples were gathered from different places where petrol and diesel filling stations were located for isolation of photosynthetic bacteria under anaerobic conditions using the paraffin wax-overlay pour plate method with Biebl and Pfennig’s medium. The three isolated strains were named Rhodopseudomonas palustris SMR 001 (Mallapur), Rhodopseudomonas palustris NR MPPR (Nacahram) and Rhodopseudomonas faecalis N Raju MPPR (Karolbagh). The morphologies of the bacteria were examined with a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The phylogenetic relationship between R. palustris strains was examined by means of 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis using NCBI-BLAST search and a phylogenetic tree. The sequenced data for R. palustris were deposited with the National Centre for Biotechnology Research (NCBI). The total amino acids produced by the isolated bacteria were determined by HPLC. A total of 14 amino acids and their derivatives were produced by the R. palustris SMR 001 strain. Among these, carnosine was found in the highest concentration (8553.2 ng/mL), followed by isoleucine (1818.044 ng/mL) and anserine (109.5 ng/mL), while R. palustris NR MPPR was found to produce 12 amino acids. Thirteen amino acids and their derivatives were found to be produced from R. faecalis N Raju MPPR, for which the concentration of carnosine (21601.056 ng/mL) was found to be the highest, followed by isoleucine (2032.6 ng/mL) and anserine (227.4 ng/mL). These microbes can be explored for the scaling up of the process, along with biohydrogen and single cell protein production.