A SCOTTISH scientist has cracked the genetic code of bacteria that helped to clean up America’s “worst environmental disaster” – and is now checking UK waters in case of toxic oil spills.

Dr Tony Gutierrez was in America when the Deepwater Horizon disaster happened, killing 11 people and spilling 3.19 million barrels of oil.

The April 2010 incident was the result of an explosion at a BP rig in the Gulf of Mexico and the corporation was subsequently fined $20 billion for what President Barack Obama called “the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced”.

Now Gutierrez, of Heriot-Watt University, has revealed groundbreaking research which reveals shows how certain bacteria thrived on oil from the devastating 87-day spill, consuming it as a preferred food source. The work, published in the scientific journal Nature Microbiology, paves the way for fresh experiments in UK waters as Gutierrez works to build safeguards against potential disasters off Scotland’s coast.

He said: “Oil is a very complex fluid that contains thousands of different types of hydrocarbon chemicals, many of which are toxic and difficult to break down. But some of these bacteria can. Understanding which bacteria are important to breaking down oil could help lead to the design of emergency response plans that are more effective and environmentally friendly for combatting a major spill.”

In a paper co-written with experts from Texas University and North Carolina University at Chapel Hill, Gutierrez reveals the genetic pathways these bacteria use to consume the oil, what conditions they thrive in, what oil hydrocarbons they can eat, and how they work in concert during an oil spill.

The Edinburgh academic was working in North Carolina when he began the study.

He said: “We knew that certain bacteria will respond to and thrive during an oil spill and helped break down oil, but we didn’t know how this was coordinated. By reconstructing the genomes of these bacteria, we’ve discovered the pathways they use to break down the different types of hydrocarbon chemicals in oil, including some of the highly toxic ones, and the way the bacteria work as a community to degrade the oil.

“Different bacteria have different appetites for different hydrocarbons, but they can work beautifully in concert together to clean up polluted water.”

In the Gulf, the bacteria oceanospirillales was found to degrade simple organic molecules known as alkanes in the deepwater oil plume, while rhodospiralles and cycloclasticus broke down highly poisonous polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

Gutierrez is now working on nature-based solutions to future pollution crises and says the organisms may render the chemical dispersants commonly used to tackle spills “ineffective”.

He said: “Future oil spills are pretty much a certainty. This new information provides evidence that the incredibly diverse bacterial community that is ever-present and living in the ocean stands at the ready, like an army of soldiers, to help degrade oil in the event of a spill. The hope is that our findings will allow us to exploit their oil-degrading potential on a wider scale, such as through more effective bioremediation strategies.”

Fears have been raised about heightened potential for oil spills around Scotland following moves by the Cromarty Firth port authority to allow the ship-to-ship transfer of crude oil.

Responding to the research, WWF Scotland director Lang Banks said: “The impact of Oil spills can have a devastating impact on the marine environment, especially in the short-term. Thankfully, nature can often provide answers to pollution problems, and this research shows that it’s no different when it comes to cleaning up oil spills.

“While it makes sense to research better ways to clean up oil pollution, given the fact that spills are pretty much inevitable, we also need to speed up efforts to wean ourselves off fossil fuels entirely.”

Last year, a court found 3.19m barrels of oil were discharged before the Deepwater Horizon well was plugged.

However, some estimates say the figure should be 5m and last month, a study suggested the amount of coastline affected by the incident was 20 per cent more than previously thought, with oil washed up on more than 1,310 miles.

Louisiana was the worst-affected area, though wetlands and beaches in Florida and Texas were also hit, damaging mangrove forests and hitting species including sea turtles and dolphins.

Scotland’s worst ever oil disaster happened in January 1993 when the Braer tanker ran aground near the Shetland Isles, spilling 84,700 tonnes of crude.