Isolation and characterization of crude-oil-dependent bacteria from the coast of Ghana using oxford nanopore sequencing.

The utilization and improper use of crude oil can have irreparable damage on the environment and human populations. This study sought to isolate hydrocarbon utilizing bacteria from 1% v/v pristine seawater and 1% v/v crude oil using enrichment culture techniques. Whole genome sequencing of DNA using the Oxford Nanopore sequencing technique with Fastq WIMP as the workflow at 3% abundance was undertaken. The results showed that the most abundant isolates identified using this technique at specific sampling sites were, (51.9%) (15.8%) (21.6%) (23.4%) (24.7%) (23.0%) (40.0%) and (14.2%). Cumulatively, the most abundant isolates in the 8 sampling sites were (17.91%), (11.68%) (7.68%) (7.67%) (3.40%) (3.10%). Spearman's rank correlation analysis to examine the strength of relationship between the physicochemical parameters and type of bacteria isolated, revealed that salinity (0.8046) and pH (0.7252) were the highest. Isolated bacteria from pristine seawater, especially have shown their capacity for bioremediating oil spill pollution in oceanic environments in Ghana.