Novel applications of Molecular Biology to aid in environmental bioremediation

Abstract

Bioremediation of environmental heavy metal contamination presents a valuable tool for an effective and low-cost method of containing and minimizing the harm of heavy metal contaminations. However, many common bacteria used in this application such as Acidothiobacillus ferroxidans do not have intrinsic rsistances to environmental heacvy metal. In this paper an attempt was made at using the traJ gene to trasnfer a plasmid containing antibiotic resistance and a mutated from of the rusticyanin protein as a test for future insertions of heavy metal resistance genes. While this was unsucessful important insights into the mechanistic requirements of conjugative gene trasnfer in A. Ferroxidans were identified.