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Diversity, community structure, and bioremediation potential of mercury-resistant marine bacteria of estuarine and coastal environments of Odisha, India

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Abstract

Both point and non-point sources increase the pollution status of mercury and increase the population of mercury-resistant marine bacteria (MRMB). They can be targeted as the indicator organism to access marine mercury pollution, besides utilization in bioremediation. Thus, sediment and water samples were collected for 2 years (2010–2012) along Odisha coast of Bay of Bengal, India. Mercury content of the study sites varied from 0.47 to 0.99 ppb irrespective of the seasons of sampling. A strong positive correlation was observed between mercury content and MRMB population (P < 0.05) suggesting the utilization of these bacteria to assess the level of mercury pollution in the marine environment. Seventy-eight percent of the MRMB isolates were under the phylum Firmicutes, and 36 and 31 % of them could resist mercury by mer operon–mediated volatilization and mercury biosorption, respectively. In addition, most of the isolates could resist a number of antibiotics and toxic metals. All the MRMB isolates possess the potential of growth and survival at cardinal pH (4–8), temperature (25–37 °C), and salinity (5–35 psu). Enterobacteria repetitive intergenic consensus (ERIC) and repetitive element palindromic PCR (REP-PCR) produced fingerprints corroborating the results of 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectral analysis also revealed strain-level speciation and phylogenetic relationships.

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Acknowledgments

Authors would like to acknowledge the authorities of NIT, Rourkela for providing facilities. H.R.D. gratefully acknowledges the receipt of research fellowship from Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. S.D. thanks the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India for research grants on marine bacterial biofilm based enhanced bioremediation of PAHs and heavy metals.

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  1. Laboratory of Environmental Microbiology and Ecology (LEnME), Department of Life Science, National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, 769 008, Odisha, India

    Hirak R. Dash & Surajit Das

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Dash, H.R., Das, S. Diversity, community structure, and bioremediation potential of mercury-resistant marine bacteria of estuarine and coastal environments of Odisha, India. Environ Sci Pollut Res 23, 6960–6971 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-5991-4

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