A sensitive crude oil bioassay indicates that oil spills potentially induce a change of major nitrifying prokaryotes from the Archaea to the Bacteria

The authors thank David Stahl at University of Washington for providing N. maritimus SCM1 and critical reading of the manuscript. We are grateful to Martin Klotz at University of North Carolina at Charlotte for providing a culture of N. marina C-113a. We would thank Paula Scott of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Fish and Wildlife Research Institute and Darren Rumbold at Florida Gulf Coast University for providing a Pensacola oil sample. Helpful discussions with Willm Martens-Habbena at University of Washington are acknowledged. We thank Jaffar Ali at Florida Gulf Coast University for helpful suggestion regarding to statistical analysis. Bioluminescence assays developed with funding from the U.S. Department of Defense to J.E.B. contributed to this work. This research was supported by the Florida Gulf Coast University Office of Research and Sponsored Programs Internal Grant Program for H.U.