ABSTRACT
As biological agents represent an affordable alternative to costly metal decontamination technologies, we isolated arsenic (As) oxidising bacteria from the As-contaminated soils of West Bengal, India. These strains were closely related to various species of Bacillus and Geobacillus based on their 16S rRNA gene sequences. They were found to be hyper-resistant to both As(V) (167-400 mM) and As(III) (16-47 mM). Elevated rates of As(III) oxidation (278-1250 µM h(-1)) and arsenite oxidase activity (2.1-12.5 nM min(-1) mg(-1) protein) were observed in these isolates. Screening identified four strains as superior As-oxidisers. Among them, AMO-10 completely (100%) oxidised 30 mM of As(III) within 24 h. The presence of the aoxB gene was confirmed in the screened isolates. Phylogenetic tree construction based on the aoxB sequence revealed that two strains, AGO-S5 and AGH-02, clustered with Achromobacter and Variovorax, whereas the other two (AMO-10 and ADP-25) remained unclustered. The increased rate of As(III) oxidation by these native strains might be exploited for the remediation of As in contaminated environments. Notably, this study presents the first correlation regarding the presence of the aoxB gene and As(III) oxidation ability in Geobacillus stearothermophilus.
Subject(s)
Arsenic/metabolism , Arsenites/metabolism , Bacteria/metabolism , Environmental Pollution , Soil Microbiology , Bacillus/genetics , Bacillus/metabolism , Bacteria/genetics , Base Sequence , India , Molecular Sequence Data , Oxidation-Reduction , Phylogeny , RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/geneticsABSTRACT
Selected arsenic-volatilizing indigenous soil bacteria were isolated and their ability to form volatile arsenicals from toxic inorganic arsenic was assessed. Approximately 37 % of AsIII (under aerobic conditions) and 30 % AsV (under anaerobic conditions) were volatilized by new bacterial isolates in 3 days. In contrast to genetically modified organism, indigenous soil bacteria was capable of removing 16 % of arsenic from contaminated soil during 60 days incubation period while applied with a low-cost organic nutrient supplement (farm yard manure).
Subject(s)
Arsenic/metabolism , Bacteria/metabolism , Soil Pollutants/metabolism , Aerobiosis , Anaerobiosis , Arsenates/metabolism , Arsenic/toxicity , Arsenites/metabolism , Bacteria/drug effects , Bacteria/genetics , Biodegradation, Environmental , India , Microbial Sensitivity Tests , RNA, Bacterial/genetics , RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics , Sequence Analysis, RNA , Soil Microbiology , Soil Pollutants/toxicity , VolatilizationABSTRACT
Twenty six arsenic (As) resistant bacterial strains were isolated from As contaminated paddy soil of West Bengal, India. Among them, 10 isolates exhibited higher As resistance capacity and could grow in concentration of 12000 mg I-1 of arsenate (AsV) and 2000 mg l-1 of arsenite (Aslll) in growing medium. Maximum growth was observed at 1000 mg I-1and 100 mg I-1 in case of AsV and Asll respectively. Results of incubation study carried out in basal salt minimal media (BSMY) containing 25 mg l-1 of AsV and Aslll separately showed that the isolates could accumulate 1.03 - 6.41 mg I-1 of AsV and 2.0 - 7.6 mg l-1 of Aslll from the media. The bacterial isolate AGH-21 showed highest As accumulating capacity both for AsV (25.64%) and Aslll (30.4%) under laboratory conditions. The isolates AGH-21 (NCBI accession no: HQ834295) showed highest sequence similarity (98%) with Bacillus sp. and could be used as a potential bioremediator in future to combat with arsenic toxicity.
