微生物提高原油采收率技术(MEOR)具有工艺简单、成本低和无污染等优点；但中高温油藏(55-80oC)中微生物的生长代谢受到限制，能完全发挥驱油功能的微生物较少，导致MEOR的技术应用存在局限；深入研究中高温油藏内的土著嗜热微生物及其驱油机制成为拓展MEOR技术的一个重要途径。具有嗜热解烃功能的地芽孢杆菌属菌株Geobacillus spp.是中高温油藏的典型驱油功能菌株。本项目以分离自胜利油田的高温驱油菌株Geobacillus sp.SL-1为研究对象，重点研究乳化剂的代谢途径和调控机制，探索乳化功能与噬烃功能的互作关系；通过基因组及转录组研究，确定SL-1菌株乳化剂合成及烃代谢的功能基因（簇），分析不同模拟激活条件下乳化剂合成及烃代谢基因簇的转录特征，解析乳化剂合成途径的关键步骤，考察激活剂及环境对乳化剂合成及烃代谢途径的激活响应，通过物理模拟驱油建立SL-1高效驱油的激活策略。

Microbial enhanced oil recovery technology (MEOR) is a kind of more respected EOR technology in the world. It mainly has a wide range of applications, environmental compatibility, good biodegradability, low-cost, simple operation and other advantages, which may become the most potential technology for oil recovery. The major obstacle that has prevented the implementation of MEOR has been the difficulty in finding, isolating or engineering microorganisms which can survive the harsh variety of environmental conditions present in oil reservoirs. For the microorganisms to be suitable and useful in MEOR in situ, they must be able to grow under the severe environmental conditions encountered in oil reservoirs, such as high temperature, pressure, salinity and low oxygen. How to stimulate the organisms growing and producing biosurfactants in these conditions is the major work for MEOR. In our proposal, the thermophilic hydrocarbon- degrading bacterium Geobacillus sp.SL-1, isolated from high temperature reservoir of Shengli Oil Field, will be used as our research object. Genome-wide transcriptome analyses of strain SL-1 with regard to bioemulsan metabolism and hydrocarbon- degrading will be employed to detect genes that are differentially transcribed during bioemulsan biosynthesis in different cultural conditions. Based on the genome-wide transcriptome analyses, we will find the biosynthesis pathway of bioemulsan in strain SL-1 and inspect its correlation with hydrocarbon- degrading function. Bioemulsan production by strain SL-1 will be assessed by metabolic flux distribution analysis. Bioemulsan production will be tested under various nutrition and oxygen supply conditions to obtain the optimal conditions. Based on the metabolic flux analysis, we will develop the strategy of stimulating thermophilic hydrocarbon- degrading bacterium Geobacillus sp. SL-1 in situ for MEOR in high temperature reservoir. We are sure it is the first time to find the biosynthesis pathway of bioemulsan in thermophilic hydrocarbon- degrading Geobacillus.