 As the sole carbon and energy source, strain P16 is able to grow using phenanthrene, fluorene, naphthalene, and methylnaphthalenes.In conjunction with the anionic surfactant Tergitol NP10 and phenanthrene, strain P16 has been proposed to be a model for looking at the effects of surfactants on non-aqueous hydrocarbon bioavailability.The inclusion of this bacterium into the "Pseudomonas" genus was confirmed by DNA-DNA hybridization and similarity comparisons of the rRNA sequences.