Abstract
Mangrove sediments were collected from different localities on the south Red Sea Coast of Saudi Arabia. Forty five isolates belonging to 13 genera were recovered and three of these isolates were found to be able to grow in association with petroleum oil as sole carbon source under in vitro conditions. These isolates were identified as Cladosporium sphaerospermum, Eupenicillium hirayamae and Paecilomyces variotii using 18S rDNA gene analysis. The three isolates have high potential to degrade petroleum hydrocarbons by co-cultivation under aeration on a rotary shaker. As compared to the controls, these fungi accumulated significantly higher biomass, produced extracellular enzymes and liberated larger volumes of CO2. These observations with Gas chromatography data confirm that these strains could be interesting to use in future field tests.