Abstract
In this work we isolated from soil and characterized several bacterial strains capable of either resisting high concentrations of heavy metals (Cd2+ or Hg2+ or Pb2+) or degrading the common soil and groundwater pollutants MTBE (methyl-tert-butyl ether) or TCE (trichloroethylene). We then used soil microcosms exposed to MTBE (50 mg/l) or TCE (50 mg/l) in the presence of one heavy metal (Cd 10 ppm or Hg 5 ppm or Pb 50 or 100 ppm) and two bacterial isolates at a time, a degrader plus a metal-resistant strain. Some of these two-membered consortia showed degradation efficiencies well higher (49–182% higher) than those expected under the conditions employed, demonstrating the occurrence of a synergetic relationship between the strains used. Our results show the efficacy of the dual augmentation strategy for MTBE and TCE bioremediation in the presence of heavy metals.
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Acknowledgments
We wish to acknowledge funding form the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation, research project AMB/57353/2004 and personal grant to PDM SFRH/BPD/20577/2004 funded by POCI2010, co-funded by FEDER. We would like to thank Pedro Moradas-Ferreira, Catarina Pacheco, Ricardo Hugo Pires (IBMC), Ana Rita Carvalho and Etelvina Figueira (University of Aveiro) for their support.
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Fernandes, V.C., Albergaria, J.T., Oliva-Teles, T. et al. Dual augmentation for aerobic bioremediation of MTBE and TCE pollution in heavy metal-contaminated soil. Biodegradation 20, 375–382 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10532-008-9228-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10532-008-9228-9