Evaluation of Yeast Isolates as Indicators for Measurement of Bioavailable Cadmium

Abstract

Abstract-Cadmium (Cd) in the environment significantly increased from the anthropogenic activities and its detection in the environment is essential. This study aims to characterize the phenotypic changes of 34 yeast isolates when grown with and without Cd. Seven isolates were able to grow on Endo agar (EA) with 30 µg/mL kanamycin (KAN) and Congo red agar (CRA) with 100 µg/mL vancomycin (VAN) when treated with 0-10 mg/L Cd. On EA with KAN, K12 showed a pink colony on agar without Cd but colorless on medium with Cd. Two isolates (K9 and K11) changed the color from orange to red colonies on CRA with VAN and 0-1 mg/L Cd after incubation for 48 h. The observed visible colors of yeast growth using different media indicated their certain sensitivity and specificity to bioavailable Cd. Thus, additional growth conditions will be further investigated and evaluated as the indicators of Cd in contaminated samples.