Environmental Geochemistry and Health

, Volume 35, Issue 4, pp 431–438 | Cite as

Characterization of boron tolerant bacteria isolated from a fly ash dumping site for bacterial boron remediation

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Abstract

Boron is an essential micronutrient for plants, but can above certain concentrations be toxic to living organisms. A major environmental concern is the removal of boron from contaminated water and fly ash. For this purpose, the samples were collected from a fly ash dumping site, Nagasaki prefecture, Japan. The chemical characteristics and heavy metal concentration of the samples were performed by X-ray fluorescent analysis and leaching test. For bacterial analysis, samples were collected in sterile plastic sheets and isolation was carried out by serial dilution method. The boron tolerant isolates that showed values of maximum inhibitory concentration toward boron ranging from 100 to 260 mM level were screened. Based on 16S rRNA sequencing and phylogenetic analysis, the isolates were most closely related to the genera Bacillus, Lysinibacillus, Microbacterium and Ralstonia. The boron tolerance of these strains was also associated with resistant to several heavy metals, such as As (III), Cr (VI), Cd, Cu, Pb, Ni, Se (III) and Zn. Indeed, these strains were arsenic oxidizing bacteria confirmed by silver nitrate test. These strains exhibited their salt resistances ranging from 4 to 15 % were determined in Trypticase soy agar medium. The boron tolerant strains were capable of removing 0.1–2.0 and 2.7–3.7 mg l−1 boron from the medium and fly ash at 168 h. Thus, we have successfully identified the boron tolerant and removal bacteria from a fly ash dumping site for boron remediation.

Keywords

Boron tolerant bacteria Heavy metals Salt resistance Fly ash dumping site Bioremediation 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support by Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Fellows (C. Edward Raja) and Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (21360227) from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and Kyushu University Interdisciplinary Programs in Education and Projects in Research (P&P).

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2012

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of Civil Engineering, School of EngineeringKyushu UniversityFukuokaJapan
  2. 2.Department of Civil EngineeringNagasaki UniversityNagasakiJapan

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