Sorption of petroleum hydrocarbons before transmembrane transport and the structure, mechanisms and functional regulation of microbial membrane transport systems

With the rapid development of the global industrialization process, as an important energy and strategic resource, petroleum is widely used in various fields. Meanwhile, the leakage of petroleum hydrocarbons (PH) has caused continuous environmental risks. Microbial degradation is an effective and reliable treatment for PH. Although significant progress has been made in the pathways and efficiency of microbial degradation of PH, there is still a lack of understanding of the membrane transport systems involved in the degradation. In this review, the sorption, transmembrane transport processes and their affecting factors of microorganisms in the degradation of PH are summarized, with emphasis on the significant progress in their structures, mechanisms of transmembrane transport, proteins in various membrane transport systems, and functional regulation of membrane transport systems in recent years, including the FadL family, the OmpW family, TonB-dependent transporters (TBDTs), ATP-binding cassette (ABC)-type transporters and major facilitator superfamily (MFS). The possible transmembrane processes involved in the complete degradation of PH by Gram-positive bacteria, Gram-negative bacteria and fungi are proposed. Meanwhile, the gaps in current research on the endocytosis mechanism of filamentous fungi, recognition, functional analysis, structure and transport mechanism of transmembrane proteins, and information acquisition technology of dynamic process are pointed out. [Display omitted] •Pre-transmembrane sorption and transmembrane processes of PH.•Structure, mechanism and functional regulation of PH membrane transport systems.•Fungi uptake PH by endocytosis in addition to passive/active transport.•PH are initially degraded between the IM and OM of Gram-negative bacteria.•FadL and OmpW family, TBDTs, ABC and MFS mediate PH transmembrane process.