The goal of this project was to investigate the structural diversity of bacterial communities in East Texas soils with different oil pollution histories using Polymerase Chain Reaction-Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE) approach and to relate it to the impact of oil releases on soil properties. Soil samples were obtained from three oil-polluted sites and adjacent, non-contaminated areas in Rusk and Gregg counties of East Texas. Results of multivariate analysis of soil properties and obtained genetic fingerprints of 16S rDNA fragments of soil bacteria demonstrated that the type of bacterial community structure, formed in the oil-impacted soils, depends on the nature of contamination. Highest structural diversity of communities was observed in soils, affected by oil and brine water spillage. Different types of bacterial community structures were formed in the soils, affected by a recent and old oil spills. Members of four divisions of domain Bacteria, commonly detected in soils, dominated in the soil bacterial communities at the studied sites according to BLASTn search result data and phylogenetic analysis.
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