Abstract
Lead is an extensive contaminant. Pb-resistant bacterial strains were isolated from Saint Clair River sediments on two enrichment media with increasing concentrations of Pb (NO3)2. Bacterial strains that grew at 1.25 or 1.5 g L−1 of Pb (NO3)2 L−1) were purified and selected for further study. Ninety-seven Pb-resistant strains were screened for the ability to produce bioflocculants. The majority of the Pb-resistant strains demonstrated moderate to high flocculation activity. Metal removal assays demonstrated that the higher is the flocculation activity, the higher is the efficiency of metal removal. In the multi-metal solutions, the bacterial strain with the highest flocculation activity (R19) had the highest metal removing capability (six out of eight metals) and the highest metal removal efficiency. The highly selective affinity towards Pb2+ observed for strain R19 suggests its use for the recovery of Pb2+ from multiple metal solutions. Because they are well adapted to unfavorable conditions due to their resistance to metals (e.g., Pb) and antibiotics, these characteristics may help in developing an effective process for wastewater treatment using these strains.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alonso A, Sánchez P, Martínez JL (2001) Environmental selection of antibiotic resistance genes. Environ Microbiol 3:1–9
Babel S, Kurniawan TA (2003) Low-cost adsorbents for heavy metals uptake from contaminated water: a review. J Hazard Mat 97(1–3):219–243. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0304-3894(02)00263-7
Bhaskar PV, Bhosle NB (2006) Bacterial extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) a carrier of heavy metals in the marine food-chain. Environ Int 32:192–198
Bruins MR, Kapil S, Oehme FW (2000) Microbial resistance to metals in the environment. Ecotoxicol Environ Saf 45:198–207
Cleveland LM, Minter ML, Cobb KA, Scott AA, German VF (2008) Lead hazards for pregnant women and children: part 1: immigrants and the poor shoulder most of the burden of lead exposure in this country. Am J Nurs 108:40–49
Demayoa A, Taylora MC, Taylora KW, Hodsonb PV, Hammond PB (1982) Toxic effects of lead and lead compounds on human health, aquatic life, wildlife plants, and livestock. Crit Rev Environ Contr 12(4):257–305. https://doi.org/10.1080/10643388209381698
Difco and BBL (2009) Difco and BBL manual of microbiological media, 2nd edn. BD Diagnostics-Diagnostic System, Sparks 700 p
El-Hendawy HH, Ali Dena A, El-Shatoury EH, Ghanem SM (2009) Bioaccumulation of heavy metals by Vibrio alginolyticus isolated from wastes of iron and steel factory, Helwan, Egypt. Egypt Acad J Biol Sci 1:23–28
Fogarty LR (2007) Bacteria and emerging chemical contaminants in the St. Clair River/Lake St. Clair Basin, Michigan: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2007–1083, 10
Gerhardt P, Murray RGE, Costilow RN, Nester EW, Wood WA, Kreig NR, Phillips GB. Manual of Methods for General Bacteriology (1994) Washington (DC): American Society for Microbiology. 791 p
Guangyu Y, Thiruvenkatachari V (2003) Heavy metals removal from aqueous solution by fungus Mucor rouxii. Water Res 37:4486–4496
Hu H, Rabinowitz M, Smith D (1998) Bone lead as a biological marker in epidemiologic studies of chronic toxicity: conceptual paradigms. Environ Health Perspect 106(1):1–8. https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.981061
Hugenholtz P, Huber T (2003) Chimeric 16S rDNA sequences of diverse origin are accumulating in public databases. Inter J Syst Evol Microbiol 53(1):289–293. https://doi.org/10.1099/ijs.0.02441-0
Lin J, Harichund C (2011) Isolation and characterization of heavy metal removing bacterial bioflocculants. Afr J Microbiol Res 5:559–607
Micheletti E, Colica G, Viti C, Tamagnini P, De Philippis R (2008) Selectivity in the heavy metal removal by exopolysaccharide-producing cyanobacteria. J Appl Microbiol 105:88–94
Moncrieff AA, Koumides OP, Clayton BE, Patrick AD, Renwick AGC, Roberts GE (1964) Lead poisoning in children. Arch Dis Child 39(203):1–13. https://doi.org/10.1136/adc.39.203.1
Murthy S, Bali G, Sarangi SK (2012) Biosorption of lead by Bacillus cereus isolated from industrial effluents. British Biotechnology Journal 2:73–84
Naik MM, Dubey SK (2013) Lead resistant bacteria: lead resistance mechanisms, their applications in lead bioremediation and biomonitoring. Ecotox Environm Saf 98:1–7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoenv.2013.09.039
Nies DH, Silver S (1995) Ion efflux systems involved in bacterial metal resistances. J Ind Microbiol 14(2):186–199. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01569902
Novick RP, Roth C (1968) Plasmid-linked resistance to inorganic salts in Staphylococcus aureus. J Bacteriol 95(4):1335–1342
Oest A, Alsaffar A, Fenner M, Azzopardi D, Tiquia-Arashiro SM (2018) Patterns of change in metabolic capabilities of sediment microbial communities along pollution gradients in river and lake ecosystems. Environmental Technology. In review
Pal A, Paul AK (2008) Microbial extracellular polymeric substances: central elements in heavy metal bioremediation. Indian J Microbiol 48(1):49–64. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12088-008-0006-5
Patel D, Gismondi R, Alsaffar A, Tiquia-Arashiro SM (2018) Extracellular enzyme activities in sediments of St. Clair River and Lake Saint Clair, Michigan. Journal of Microbiology. In review
Silver S (1996) Bacteria resistances to toxic metals. Gene 179(1):9–19. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-1119(96)00323-X
Summers AO (2002) Generally overlooked fundamentals of bacterial genetics and ecology. Clin Infect Dis 34(s3):S85–S92. https://doi.org/10.1086/340245
Summers AO, Wireman J, Vimy MJ, Lorscheider FL, Marshall B, Levy SB, Bennett S, Billard L (1993) Mercury released from dental silver fillings provokes an increase in mercury-resistant and antibiotic resistant bacteria in oral and intestinal floras of primates. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 37(4):825–834. https://doi.org/10.1128/AAC.37.4.825
Weisburg WW, Barns SM, Pelletier DA, Lane DJ (1991) SSU ribosomal DNA amplification for phylogenetic study. J Bacteriol 173(2):697–703. https://doi.org/10.1128/jb.173.2.697-703.1991
Zhang ZQ, Lin B, Xia SQ, Wang XJ, Yang AM (2007) Production and application of a novel bioflocculant by multiple microorganism consortia using brewery wastewater as carbon source. J Environ Sci 19(6):667–673. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1001-0742(07)60112-0
Zouboulis AI, Loukidou MX, Matis KA (2003) Biosorption of toxic heavy metals from aqueous solutions by bacteria strains isolated from metal-polluted soils. Process Biochem 39:909–916
Acknowledgements
This research was funded by the University of Michigan-Dearborn Office of Sponsored Programs. We thanked the anonymous reviewers for critically reading the manuscript and suggesting substantial improvements.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Tiquia-Arashiro conceived and designed the study. Bowman performed the experiments and analyzed the data with Patel, Sanchez, Xu, and Alsaffar. Alsaffar collected the sediment samples and field data. Tiquia-Arashiro, Bowman, Patel, and Sanchez wrote the manuscript, which was completed with input from Xu and Alsaffar
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
This article does not contain any experiments involving human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Electronic supplementary material
ESM 1
(PDF 114 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bowman, N., Patel, D., Sanchez, A. et al. Lead-resistant bacteria from Saint Clair River sediments and Pb removal in aqueous solutions. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 102, 2391–2398 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-018-8772-4
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-018-8772-4