More knowledge about the specific mechanisms used by microorganisms to get access to PAHs may provide useful
information to improve PAH biodegradation applications.Since microbial growth on water-immiscible aliphatic hydrocarbons has been associated with the production of surfactants,we were interested in finding out if PAH-metabolizing bacteria might be able to secrete surface-active agents.Our objective is to determine if production of surfactants by
PAH-metabolizing microorganisms is part of their strategy for growing on such poorly available substrates. As a first step
toward this goal, we report here the isolation of bacterial strains producing surfactants while growing on naphthalene or
phenanthrene. A detailed study of one of the isolates, P.aeruginosa 19SJ, was conducted.