Utilization of alkylbenzenes during anaerobic growth of pure cultures of denitrifying bacteria on crude oil

Four pure cultures of denitrifying bacteria, which had previously been isolated on defined alkylbenzenes, were capable of anaerobic growth with crude oil as the only source of organic substrates. Chemical analyses after growth revealed that the known growth substrates toluene, ethylbenzene, and nr-xylene were selectively consumed from the oil, o-xylene and p-xylene, which as pure compounds did not support growth, were consumed to a lesser extent.