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Cloning of the cnr operon into a strain of Bacillaceae bacterium for the development of a suitable biosorbent

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Abstract

In this study, a potential microbial biosorbent was engineered to improve its capacity to remediate heavy metal contaminated water resources. A Bacillaceae bacterium isolated from a mining area was transformed with a plasmid carrying the (pECD312)-based cnr operon that encodes nickel and cobalt resistance. The bioadsorption ability of the transformed strain was evaluated for removal of nickel from metallurgical water relative to the wildtype strain. Results showed that transformation improved the adsorption capacity of the bacterium by 37 % at nickel concentrations equivalent to 150 mg/L. Furthermore it was possible to apply prediction modelling to study the bioadsorption behaviour of the transformed strain. As such, this work may be extended to the design of a nickel bioremediation plant utilising the newly developed Bacillaceae bacterium as a biosorbent.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the sponsor from the North-West University and the National Research Foundation (NRF) in South Africa. Any opinion, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and therefore the NRF does not accept any liability in regard thereto. The authors are also grateful to Professor TG Barnard of the Water and Health Research Centre of the University of Johannesburg for providing the facilities, Dr C Grosse of the Institut fur Biologie/Mikrobiologie of Martin-Luther-Universitat Halle-Wittenberg in Germany for providing the plasmid pECD312; CF van der Merwe and A Hall of the Laboratory for Microscopy and Microanalysis of the University of Pretoria for the TEM analysis. The NRF and Commonwealth for sponsoring through academic scholarship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemical and Minerals Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa

    Elvis Fosso-Kankeu

  2. Minerals Processing and Technology Research Center, Department of Extraction Metallurgy, School of Mining, Metallurgy and Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of Johannesburg, PO Box 17011, Doornfontein, 2028, South Africa

    Antoine F. Mulaba-Bafubiandi

  3. Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Johannesburg, PO Box 524, Auckland Park, 2006, South Africa

    Lizelle A. Piater & Matsobane G. Tlou

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  1. Elvis Fosso-Kankeu
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  2. Antoine F. Mulaba-Bafubiandi
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  3. Lizelle A. Piater
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  4. Matsobane G. Tlou
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Correspondence to Elvis Fosso-Kankeu.

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Fosso-Kankeu, E., Mulaba-Bafubiandi, A.F., Piater, L.A. et al. Cloning of the cnr operon into a strain of Bacillaceae bacterium for the development of a suitable biosorbent. World J Microbiol Biotechnol 32, 114 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11274-016-2069-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11274-016-2069-5

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