Leaking oil and gas are seen during dispersant operations at the site of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, in this screen grab taken from a BP live video feed June 11, 2010. Britain stuck up for beleaguered BP Plc on Friday against American criticism over the massive oil spill that U.S. scientists said was far bigger than previously thought. [Xinhua/Reuters]

The discovery is strain "NY3" of a common bacteria that has been known of for decades, called Pseudomonas aeruginosa. It was isolated from a site in Shaanxi Province in China, where soils had been contaminated by oil.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is widespread in the environment and can cause serious infections, but usually in people with health problems or compromised immune systems. However, some strains also have useful properties, including the ability to produce a group of "biosurfactants called rhamnolipids.

Although the type of biosurfactant called "rhamnolipids" have been used for many years, the newly discovered strain, NY3, stands out for some important reasons.

Researchers said in the new study that it has an "extraordinary capacity" to produce rhamnolipids that could help break down oil, and then degrade some of its most serious toxic compounds, the PAHs.

Rhamnolipids are not toxic to microbial flora, human beings and animals, and they are completely biodegradable. These are compelling advantages over their synthetic chemical counterparts made from petroleum. Even at a very low concentration, rhamnolipids could remarkably increase the mobility, solubility and bioavailability of PAHs, and strain NY3 of Pseudomonas aeruginosa has a strong capability of then degrading and decontaminating the PAHs.