The viruses in the oil reservoirs and their roles in the alkane degradation

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Li Deng
• Subject Area: Microbial Ecology and Applied Microbiology ; Soil Sciences
• Term: from 2018 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 391644373

Microbial biodegradation is a key factor influencing the quality of oil. The biological activity that is governed by numerous processes of which the current perspective is only involving hydrology, biogeochemistry and environmental microbiology. One important piece of the puzzle, however, is missing completely: viruses.This project now aims to elaborate a ground-breaking new perspective, the viral-driven degradation in oil reservoirs. We recently showed a surprisingly high virus-to-bacteria-ratio (VBR) in both water and oil phases from the oil reservoirs, which was so far the highest VBR documented in nature. Therefore, we hypothesize that viruses may play central ecological and evolutionary roles in oil reservoirs similar to those that have been demonstrated in the surface and deep marine ecosystems, where virus significantly influences dynamics of bacterial communities. In particular, we hypothesize that oil degradation is greatly impacted by viruses through (i) horizontally transfer host metabolic genes related to alkane degrading (hypothesis 1), and (ii) specifically lysing key bacterial degraders (hypothesis 2). Pillaring on the recent advance of environmental virology, especially the novel methodology from Dr. Li Dengs group in Germany, as well as the oil microbiology from Prof. Xiao-Lei Wus group in China, we are in the unique position to tackle this viral impact to the oil reservoir field. In a cutting-edge and interdisciplinary research endeavor, we will verify the hypotheses using carefully designed field surveys and microcosms. The objectives of this project can revolutionize the current view on drivers behind microbial degradation of our most important energy resources with far-reaching implications for fundamental, interdisciplinary understanding of ecological processes, bioremediation, and oil exploration.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: China
• Partner Organisation: National Natural Science Foundation of China
• Cooperation Partner: Professor Xiao-Lei Wu, Ph.D.