Potential of Mercury-Resistant Marine Bacteria for Detoxification of Chemicals of Environmental Concern

Abstract

The hypothesis that mercury-resistant bacteria exposed to polluted environments such as coastal areas can tolerate, detoxify, or biotransform a variety of other toxicants was examined. Several mercury-resistant marine bacteria from the coastal waters of India were evaluated for their ability to biotransform the heavy metals mercury, cadmium and lead as well as xenobiotics like polychlorinated biphenyls and tributyltin. These salt-tolerant bacteria removed mercury by means of volatilization and were successfully used to detoxify mercury-amended growth medium for the culturing of mercury-sensitive Phormidium sp. Over 70% cadmium and 95% of the lead from the growth medium were either cell-bound (cadmium) or precipitated (lead) by some of these bacteria. A pseudomonad strain, CH07, aerobically degraded fourteen toxic polychlorinated biphenyls including congeners with five or more chlorine atoms on the biphenyl ring and was also equally efficient in degrading more than 54% of the tributyltin. These bacteria offer great biotechnological opportunities in the bioremediation of toxic chemicals.

The response of Prorocentrum sigmoides and its associated culturable bacteria to metals and organic pollutants

“…As early as the 1970s, Singbal et al reported 26–187 ng/l mercury in regions off Goa. Subsequently, after three decades, De et al observed 152–456 ng/l mercury in Mormugao, Goa. Lead concentrations ranging from 4.5–46.5 µg/g have been recorded in sediments of the Mandovi Estuary , whereas mangrove sediments along the Chapora and Mandovi Rivers revealed 7.9–50.5 µg/g of lead .…”

Multiple Degradation and Resistance Capabilities of Marine Bacteria Isolated from Niger Delta, Nigeria on Petroleum Pollutants and Heavy Metals

“…Isolating the bacteria with necessary performance for degradation of organic pollutants such as xylene, anthracene and pyrene in soil and water ecosystems can be the perfect solution for improving the microbial population in areas contaminated by hydrocarbons [5]. Several species of bacterial genera Pseudomonas, Serratia, Marinobacter, Providencia, Alcaligenes, Salmonella, Nocardia, Mycobacterium, Cunninghamella, Rhodococcus, Beijerinckia, Lysinibacillus, Corynebacterium, Diaphorobacter, Pseudoxanthomonas, Bacillus and Sphingomona s; have been found highly capable of degrading petroleum hydrocarbons as well as heavy metals are well documented [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14].…”

The natural and anthropogenic microbiota of Glerá, a sub-arctic river in northeastern Iceland

“…Mercury resistant microorganisms have been isolated from natural waters (Jonas et al, 1984;Barkay, 1987;Schaefer et al, 2004), soils (Diels and Mergeay, 1990;Aleem et al, 2003) and clinical environments (Meissner and Falkinham, 1986). Bacterial mercury resistance has been observed in several pseudomonads, and mercury-tolerant pseudomonads have been suggested be potential environmental bioremediators (Jaysankar et al, 2007).…”