Surviving Oil Ponds

Biological Strategy

California oil fly

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Protect From Chemicals

Chemicals are everywhere in the bodies of living organisms and their external environments. While most chemicals are valuable or benign, some are toxic, including those used for defense (such as the mucus that protects clownfish from an anemone’s stinging tentacles). Even naturally-occurring chemicals, such as arsenic, must be managed to reduce their impact. Some living systems have strategies to break down harmful chemicals, alter them into less toxic forms, physically prevent chemicals from harming sensitive tissues, and more. For example, some herbivorous mammals can digest toxic compounds in plants because they have a particular enzyme that helps them process poisonous plant compounds.

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Insects

Class Insecta (“an insect”): Flies, ants, beetles, cockroaches, fleas, dragonflies

Insects are the most abundant arthropods—they make up 90% of the animals in the phylum. They’re found everywhere on earth except the deep ocean, and scientists estimate there are millions of insects not yet described. Most live on land, but many live in freshwater or saltwater marshes for part of their life cycles. Insects have three distinct body sections: a head, which has specialized mouthparts, a thorax, which has jointed legs, and an abdomen. They have well-developed nervous and sensory systems, and are the only invertebrate that can fly, thanks to their lightweight exoskeletons and small size.

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Gut bacteria of petroleum fly larvae possibly aid survival in crude oil ponds via solvent tolerance.

“Helaeomyia petrolei larvae [the larvae of flies that live in crude oil ponds and feed on insects that fall in] isolated from the asphalt seeps of Rancho La Brea in Los Angeles, Calif., were examined for microbial gut contents. Standard counts on Luria-Bertani, MacConkey, and blood agar plates indicated ca. 2 × 105 heterotrophic bacteria per larva. The culturable bacteria represented 15 to 20% of the total population as determined by acridine orange staining. The gut itself contained large amounts of the oil, had no observable ceca, and maintained a slightly acidic pH of 6.3 to 6.5. Despite the ingestion of large amounts of potentially toxic asphalt by the larvae, their guts sustained the growth of 100 to 1,000 times more bacteria than did free oil. All of the bacteria isolated were nonsporeformers and gram negative. Fourteen isolates were chosen based on representative colony morphologies and were identified by using the Enterotube II and API 20E systems and fatty acid analysis. Of the 14 isolates, 9 were identified as Providencia rettgeri and 3 were likely Acinetobacter isolates. No evidence was found that the isolates grew on or derived nutrients from the asphalt itself or that they played an essential role in insect development. Regardless, any bacteria found in the oil fly larval gut are likely to exhibit pronounced solvent tolerance and may be a future source of industrially useful, solvent-tolerant enzymes.” (Kadavy et al. 1999:1477)

Last Updated August 18, 2016

References

Journal article

Microbiology of the Oil Fly, Helaeomyia petrolei

Kadavy, D. R.; Plantz, B.; Shaw, C. A.; Myatt, J.; Kokjohn, T. A.; Nickerson, K. W.

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