*********** 040193B.BIO *********** Contributory Category: ENG, ENV Country: Japan From: JPRS-JST-93-101-L 10 December 1993 p. 22 KEYWORDS: Japan, Marine Bacteria, Marine Biotechnology, Oil Spill Cleanup, Pseudomonas +++++ MARINE BIOTECHNOLOGY INSTITUTE DISCOVERS MICROORGANISM THAT DECOMPOSES RESIN 93FE1018C Tokyo NIKKAN KOGYO SHIMBUN in Japanese 30 Aug 93 p 29- [Text) Research to accelerate processing by microorganisms after crude oil spilling accidents has been attracting attention, but the Marine Biotechnology Institute (MBI, 2-35-10 Hongo, Bunkyo- ku, Tokyo, Telephone 03-5684-6211) established by 24 companies such as the Nippon Steel Corporation and Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Co., Ltd. has discovered a microorganism decomposing and removing resin, one of the components of crude oil which is difficult to break down. With this microorpnism, 30% of the resin can be decomposed. At MBI, it seems that it can be used not only for crude oil spill processing but also for polluted soil processing. Research for decomposing and processing spilled crude with microorganisms continues at MBI. Before now, microorganisms decomposing the material constituting crude oil have been discovered. The biggest problem in spilled crude oil is the crude oil, containing many materials which are difficult to break down such as resin and asphalt, drifting onto shore. Here, a microorganism to remove and decompose the resin therein was sought. Mud from 20 locations around the Izu Peninsula was sampled and examined. As a result, it was understood that the Pseudomonas group UN-3 type which is one type of bacteria extracted from the mud of the sea floor near the Yunohama hot spring decomposed resin the most. The most suitable environment for raising this bacteria has a temperature of 20-30 C and a pH of 7. The concentration of salt is 1.2% (Note 12 ppt: PW) and it became clear that they proliferate even in sea water with resin as the only source of carbon and do not require sources of nutrients such as organic nitrogen and vitamins in particular. Upon examining to what extent this bacteria decomposes resin in experiments, it was found that a 0.5% concentration of resin was decomposed 30% after culturing the bacteria for 20 days. At MBI it appears that ,since the resin is carbon compounds, perhaps part of it is decomposed." ************** END Msg. B.BIO **************