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The genus Alcanivorax, first described by Yakimov in 1998, is a group of marine bacteria known for degrading hydrocarbons (Yakimov et. al, 1998). Pacificus refers to the Pacific Ocean, the environment in which it resides. When originally proposed, the genus Alcanivorax had only 6 distinguishable species. However, A. pacificus, a seventh strain, was isolated from the original 6 strains of Alcanivorax in deep sea sediments in the West Pacific ocean by Shanghai Majorbio Bio-pharm Technology Co., Ltd. in 2011 (Lai et. al, 2012). A. pacificus’s ability to degrade hydrocarbons can be employed for cleaning up oil-contaminated oceans through bioremediation. The genomic differences present in this strain of Alcanivorax that distinguish it from the original consortium are important to understand to better utilize this bacteria for bioremediation (Lai et. al, 2012). A. pacificus is a non-motile, Gram-negative bacillus (Lai et. al, 2012). It forms light grey colonies that are between 1 to 2 millimeters in diameter when grown on 216L marine agar medium containing seawater, sodium acenate, tryptone, yeast extract, ammonium nitrate, and sodium citrate (Lai et. al, 2012). A. pacificus is mesophilic and moderately halophilic, growing best in an environment between 10-42 degrees Celsius that contains 0.5-12% NaCl (Lai et. al, 2012).