HOME JOURNALS CONTACT

Bacteriology Journal

Year: 2012 | Volume: 2 | Issue: 1 | Page No.: 12-21
DOI: 10.17311/bj.2012.12.21
Bioaccumulation of Heavy Metals by Zinc Resistant Bacteria Isolated from Agricultural Soils Irrigated with Wastewater
Munees Ahemad and Abdul Malik

Abstract: Due to global industrialization, heavy metals from industrial activities are accumulated in soils up to alarming concentrations. Microorganisms have developed several mechanisms to tolerate such high concentrations of heavy metals. One of these mechanisms dependent upon metabolic energy of microorganisms is the bioaccumulation of heavy metals. Therefore, this study was navigated to isolate the most promising zinc resistant bacteria from heavy metal contaminated soils and further, to assess their metal accumulating ability. A total of 34 bacterial isolates from agricultural soils irrigated with metal polluted wastewater were characterized and identified as Pseudomonas (23 isolates), Bacillus (5 isolates), Staphylococcus (6 isolates). The zinc resistant bacteria (Pseudomonas isolate SN7, Pseudomonas isolate SN28 and Pseudomonas isolate SN30) were selected because of exhibiting co-resistance against Cu2+, Hg2+, Cd2+, Ni2+, Pb2+, Cr3+ and Cr6+ in addition to Zn2+ and displaying high values of Minimum Inhibitory Concentrations (MIC) for each heavy metal. Further, the three isolates were assessed for their ability to remove zinc and copper from medium amended with these metals. The zinc resistant bacterial isolates SN7, SN28 and SN30 accumulated zinc maximum 29, 25 and 26 mg g-1 dry weight of cells, respectively at the zinc concentration of 1.6 mM. Similarly, bacterial isolates SN7, SN28 and SN30 accumulated copper maximum 20, 25 and 22 mg g-1 dry weight of cells, respectively at 2.92 mM of copper. The results of present study showed that the metal resistant bacteria can be used for heavy metal bioremediation.

Fulltext PDF Fulltext HTML

How to cite this article
Munees Ahemad and Abdul Malik, 2012. Bioaccumulation of Heavy Metals by Zinc Resistant Bacteria Isolated from Agricultural Soils Irrigated with Wastewater. Bacteriology Journal, 2: 12-21.

Related Articles:
© Science Alert. All Rights Reserved