Tolerance of Heavy Metals by Gram Positive Soil Bacteria

Authors: I. V. N. Rathnayake, Mallavarapu Megharaj, Nanthi Bolan, Ravi Naidu

Abstract:

With the intention of screening for heavy metal tolerance, a number of bacteria were isolated and characterized from a pristine soil. Two Gram positive isolates were identified as Paenibacillus sp. and Bacillus thuringeinsis. Tolerance of Cd2+, Cu2+ and Zn2+ by these bacteria was studied and found that both bacteria were highly sensitive to Cu2+ compared to other two metals. Both bacteria showed the same pattern of metal tolerance in the order Zn+ > Cd2+ > Cu2+. When the metal tolerance in both bacteria was compared, Paenibacillus sp. showed the highest sensitivity to Cu2+ where as B. thuringiensis showed highest sensitivity to Cd2+ and Zn2+ .These findings revealed the potential of Paenibacillus sp. in developing a biosensor to detect Cu2+ in environmental samples.

Keywords: Heavy metals, bacteria, soil, tolerance.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1071334

References:

[1] G.M. Gadd, "Metals and microorganisms: A problem definition". FEMS Microbiology Letters 100, pp. 197-204, 1992.
[2] D.,H Nies, "Microbial heavy metal resistance". Applied microbioogy and biotechnology vol. 51, pp.730-750. 1999.
[3] M.R Bruins, S. Kapil, F.W. Oehme, "Microbial resistance to metals in the environment". Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety vol. 45, pp.198-207, 2000.
[4] H. Hussein, S. Farag, K. Kandil, H. Moawad, "Tolerance and uptake of heavy metals by pseudomonads". Process Biochemistry vol. 40, pp. 955- 961, 2005.
[5] T.M. Roane, I.L. Pepper, "Microbial responses to environmentally toxic cadmium". Microbial Ecology vol. 38, pp. 358-364, 2000.
[6] R.K. Poole & G.M. Gadd, "Metals: Microbe Interactions, IRL Press, Oxford , pp. 1-37, 1989.
[7] T.M. Roane, I.L. Pepper, "Microorganisms and Metal Pollutants".in Environmental Microbiology Maier, R., M, Gerba, C.P., Pepper, I.A. (Eds.),. Academic press, San Diago, California, London, 1999, pp. 403- 423.
[8] R. Naidu, G.S.R.Krishnamurthi, W.Wenzel, N.S.Bolan, & M. Megharaj, "Heavy metal interactions in soils and implications for soil microbial biodiversity" in Metals in the environment, analysis by biodiversity, M.N.V.Prasad, New York: Marcel Dekker, Inc., Ed. pp. 401-431.
[9] B.H. Olson, & I. Thronton, "The resistance patterens to metals of bacterial populations in contaminated land "Journal of Soil Science, vol. 33, pp 271-277, 1982.
[10] A. Hassen, N. Saidi, M. Cherif, A. Boudabous, "Resistance of environmental bacteria to heavy metals". Bioresource Technology vol. 64, pp. 7-15, 1998.
[11] Guideline on the investigation levels for the soil and ground water, Schedule B(1), National Environment Protection (Assessment of site contamination) Measure-Australia, 1999, pp. 9
[12] G.I. Barrow & R.K.A. Feltham, COWEN AND STEEL-S Manual for the identification of medical bacteria, 3rd Ed. Cambridge University Press, 1993.
[13] J.M. Bell, J.C. Paton, J. Turndge, "Emergence of vancomycin-resistant enterococci in Australia: Phenotypic and genotypic characteristics of isolates". Journal of Clinical Microbiology vol. 36,no. 8, pp. 2187-2190, 1998.
[14] W.G. Weisburg, S.M. Barns, D.A. Pelletier,D.J. Lane, "16S ribosomal DNA amplification for phylogenetic study". Journal of Bacteriology vol. 173,no. 2, pp. 697-703, 1991.
[15] T.Z. De Santis, P. Hugenholtz, K. Keller, E.L. Brodie, N. Larsen, Y.M. Piceno, R. Phan, G.L. Anderson, "NAST: A multiple sequence alignment server for comparative analysis of 16S rRNA genes". Nucleic Acid Research vol. 34, pp. W394-W399, 2006.
[16] T.Z. DeSantis, P. Hugenholtz, N. Larsen, M. Rojas, E.L. Brodie, K. Keller, T. Huber, D. Dalevi, P. Hu,G.L. Anderson, "Greengenes, a chimera-checked 16S rRNA gene database and workbench compatible with ARB". Applied and environmental microbiology vol. 72, no. 7, pp. 5069-5072, 2006.
[17] S. Kumar, K. Tamura, M. Nei, "MEGA3 : Intergrated software for molecular evolutionalry genetics analysis and sequence alignment". Briefings in Bioinformatics vol. 5,no. 2, pp. 150-163, 2004.
[18] M. Diaz-Raviña, & E. Bååth. "Development of metal tolerance in soil bacterial communities exposed to experimentally increased metal levels". Applied and Environmental Microbiology, vol. 62, pp. 2970- 2977, 1996.
[19] E.I. Yilmaz, "Metal tolerance and biosorption capacity of Bacillus circulans strain EB1", Research in Microbiology, vol. 154, pp. 409- 415,2003.
[20] H.B Zhang , M.X. Yang, W. Shi, Y. Zheng, T. Sha, & Z.W. Zhao, "Bacterial diversity in mine tailings compared by cultivation and cultivation independent methods and their resistance to lead and cadmium, vol. 54, pp705-712, 2007.
[21] A. Hassen, N.Saidi, M. Cherif, & A. Boudabous, "Effects of heavy metals on Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Bacillus thuringiensis", Bioresource Technology, vol.65, pp.73-82,1998.
[22] M. P. Acosta, E.Valdman, S.G.F. Leite, F. Battaglini & Ruzal, "Biosorption of copper by Paenibacillus polymixa cells and their exopolysaccharide", World journal of microbiology & biotechnology, vol. 21, pp. 1157-1167, 2005.
[23] E.R. El-Helow, S.A. Sabry & R.M. Amer, " Cadmium biosorption by a cadmium resistant strain of Bacillus thuringiensis: regulation and optimization of cell surface affinity for metal cations", BioMetals, vol. 13, pp. 273-280, 2000.
[24] J.A.M.Pérez, R.Garc├¡a-Ribera, T.Quesada, M. Aguilera, A. Ramos- Cormenzana, M. Monteoliva-S├ínchez," Biosorption of heavy metals by the exopolysaccharide produced by Paenibacillus jamilae" World journal of microbiology & biotechnology, vol. 24, pp. 2699-2704, 2008.