Project Report from the year 2014 in the subject Biology - Micro- and Molecular Biology, grade: PDF, , course: Personal Research Project, language: English, abstract: Ancient rocks and natural oils are rich with abundant and hidden information of ancient organic matters responsible for earth formation, including molecular and isotopic signatures of the organisms that existed at the time the organic matter was formed. Considering the above facts of astrobiology, research study was carried out on screening of oil indicating microorganisms from oil contaminated sites of major geo-political zones of Yobe State, Nigeria including Damaturu, Gashua, Potiskum and Nguru local Government areas.

Serial dilution was performed for all soil samples collected from the oil contaminated sites of mentioned local government areas followed by culture isolation and identification techniques for bacterial samples only. Nutrient agar was used for the isolation of the bacteria from the soil samples and mixed cultures were obtained. These bacterial cultures were inoculated in petroleum in order to see their oil utilizing capability. Two types of culture showed positive results among all isolated colonies. Rhizoid shaped gram positive rods isolated from soils of Damaturu, Gashua, Potiskum and Nguru & yellow pigmented gram negative bacterial colony isolated from soils of Potiskum and Nguru showed oil utilizing ability by positive growth in the refined crude oil (Petroleum, Diesel, etc.).

The oil utilizing ability of those specific bacteria shows their potentiality in detecting the presence of oil and acting as potential oil indicators in Sub-Saharan region of African Continent caring a long history of bio-geo sciences. Findings from the present research work may create an opening for encouraging the geo-biological potentials of West African Countries in astrobiological aspects.