Microbial degradation and molecular mechanism of medium and long-chain alkanes in petroleum: a review

Abstract:

Medium and long-chain alkanes are key parts of petroleum hydrocarbons. They are the main cause of the high viscosity of underground crude oil, low oil recovery, and long-term pollution of the ecological environment after leakage due to their strong hydrophobicity, high viscosity, low chemical activity, and difficulty in degradation. As a result, they are important degradation targets in terms of improving oil recovery and treating petroleum pollution in the environment. As a new and efficient green technology, microbial degradation of medium and long-chain alkanes has gained popularity. This paper summarized the interphase adaptation and transport process of medium and long-chain alkanes in microbial degradation, membrane proteins related to the transport process, metabolic pathways of aerobic and anaerobic microorganism degradation, gene regulation mechanism in aerobic degradation, and putative gene regulation mechanism in anaerobic degradation. Furthermore, prospects for the research direction of microbial degradation of medium and long-chain alkanes were presented, serving as references for subsequent related research.