Anaerobic biodegradation of pristane by a marine sedimentary bacterial and/or archaeal community

Pristane was incubated in anaerobic sediment slurries under conditions promoting or limiting nitrate reduction. Pristane was efficiently degraded (85% after 6 months) by the mixed microbial community when nitrate reducing processes were avoided. The biodegradation of pristane was accompanied by the abundant production of methane which indicated that methanogenic Archaea were involved in the degradation of the substrate. Comparison of the biodegradation rate of pristane with that of unsaturated isoprenoid alkenes indicated that, in Recent anoxic sediments, acyclic isoprenoid alkanes can also undergo relatively rapid biotransformations and, therefore, can no longer be considered as recalcitrant biomarkers.