Oil solubilization and degradation by exopolysaccharide producing Halomonas strains

Cultured isolates of the genus Halomonas were tested for the ability to emulsify and degrade aromatic hydrocarbons as well as their ability to form oil aggregates. High-throughput DNA sequencing was also used to determine the ambient abundance of these culture strains during the Deepwater Horizon blowout. Pyrosequencing data were submitted to the European Nucleotide Archive Sequence Read Archive under the study accession number ERP002443. The 16S rRNA gene sequence of Halomonas strains GOS-2, GOS-3a and TGOS-10 were deposited with GenBank under accession numbers JQ246430, JQ246431 and JQ246432, respectively. This dataset reports disintegrations per minutes (dmp), hydrocarbon concentrations, and absorbance from experiments reported in the publication Gutirrez et al 2013, Role of Bacterial Exopolysaccharides (EPS) in the Fate of the Oil Released during the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, PLOS ONE, 8 (6):e67717 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0067717.