Chinedu Christian Iheanacho¹*, Ikenna Light Nkwocha² and Tega Lilian Ataikiru³

¹Department of Microbiology, Federal University Wukari, Wukari City, Taraba State, Nigeria
²Department of Microbiology, University of Port Harcourt, Choba, Port Harcourt City, Rivers State, Nigeria
³Microbiology of Environmental Science, Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Efurun, Delta State, Nigeria

*Corresponding Author: Chinedu Christian Iheanacho, Department of Microbiology, Federal University Wukari, Wukari City, Taraba State, Nigeria.

Received: November 14, 2023; Published: December 04, 2023

Abstract

Indigenous fungal species of hydrocarbon-impacted soil were isolated and characterized using standard techniques. Soil samples were collected from Borobara community, Tai L.G.A, Rivers State, an oil exploration zone of Nigeria’s Niger Delta and transported to the laboratory for analyses. Nine (9) fungal isolates were screened for hydrocarbon biodegradation potentials in a shake-flask culture incorporated with 1% crude oil (hydrocarbon) and redox reagent (2% 2,6-dichlorophenol indophenols) for 14 days. Eight fungal isolates showed potentials for hydrocarbon degradation employing colour change, optical density and total hydrocarbon content (THC) depletion as monitoring parameters for 14 days. Five of the isolates exhibited the fastest onset and highest extent of biodegradation and were identified as: Aspergillus sp., Yarrowia sp. (1), Yarrowia sp. (2), Zygorrhinchus sp. (1) and Zygorrhinchus sp. (2). In this study, it was observed that the highest THC biodegradation efficiency was exhibited by Yarrowia sp. (1) and Zygorrhinchus sp. (2). This indicated that these fungal species are efficient hydrocarbon degraders. Thus, they can be considered in strain development programme for bioremediation of hydrocarbon-polluted farmlands (soil).

Keywords: Hydrocarbon; Fungal Isolates; Borobara Community; Niger Delta

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Citation

Citation: Chinedu Christian Iheanacho., et al. “Fungal Flora Associated with Petroleum-Impacted Farmland in Borobara Community, Ogoni-Land, Niger Delta Area of Nigeria". Acta Scientific Microbiology 7.1 (2024): 08-15.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2024 Chinedu Christian Iheanacho.,et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.