In the recent 50 years,marine oil spills had resulted in severe environmental pollution problems worldwide.In this study,12 petroleum-degrading strains named MJ1 to MJ12,which can use diesel oil as the sole carbon source for growth,were isolated from the seawater in Jiaozhou Bay,China.Strain MJ4 has the highest diesel-degrading rate which is up to 26.54%in 5 days with the diesel oil concentration of 10 g/L.According to the BLAST research,16SrRNA sequence of MJ4 showed 99%similarity to Bacillus megaterium strain.Single-factor experiments and response surface methodology were carried out to optimize the environmental factors and their reciprocal action for affecting the diesel oil degradation process of Bacillus sp.MJ4.Results of single-factor experiments revealed that the highest degradation rate was obtained with temperature of 28℃,pH of 8.8,diesel oil concentration of 25 g/L,P/N ratio of 0.56,nitrogen and phosphorus dosage quantity of 0.35 g/L and 0.18 g/L,respectively.A nonlinear regression equation of diesel oil degradation rate and pH,temperature,P/N ratio was obtained.The model predicted the maximum degradation rate of 72.21%with temperature of 28℃,pH of 8.88,P/N ratio of 0.31,respectively.