Heavy metal resistant bacteria from soil as potential bioremediation targets: isolation, screening and biochemical identification

Summary: This study investigates the role of bacterial species capable of mitigating metal-induced toxicity by bioaccumulation and biotransformation. Study focuses on five metals including Pb/sup +2/, Ni/sup +2/, Cd/sup +2/, Cr/sup +2/, and Cu/sup +2/ in a range of 50-300µg/ml of concentration initially in qualitative (metal-specific) and subsequently quantitative (dose-specific) approach, but results turned out to be much in favor of a quantitative impact of the study. Thirty 30 bacterial strains from soil were isolated and biochemically identified that showed promising metal-resisting behavior. Identification of bacterial strain was based upon biochemical (phenotypic) method. The isolate number 1, 12, 29 and 30 showed high degree of resistance against all metals of concentration up to 300µg/ml suggesting the potential possibility of these species of bacteria to provide some beneficial tools for bio-mining, and bioremediation as well as removing of metal contaminations from heavy metal contaminated sites. (author)