Water, Air, & Soil Pollution

, Volume 216, Issue 1–4, pp 51–57 | Cite as

Enhanced Tolerance to Mercury in a Streptomycin-Resistant Strain of Euglena gracilis

  • Silvia Devars
  • José Salud Rodríguez-Zavala
  • Rafael Moreno-Sánchez
Article
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Abstract

Toxicity of Hg2+ was determined in two strains of Euglena gracilis var. bacillaris: the wild-type (B) and a streptomycin-resistant strain (Smr). Cells were cultured under 12-h dark/12-h light regime or under continuous darkness. In the dark/light cultures, cellular growth was severely diminished in the B strain by Hg2+, whereas only a slight decrease was attained in the Smr strain; Hg2+ also affected the photosynthetic and respiratory activities of the B strain, but not those of Smr strain. Under continuous darkness, cellular growth of both strains was lower than under dark/light cycles, but it was inhibited by Hg2+ to a much lesser extent. Cell culture by 5 days under continuous dark or by 8 days of dark/light cycles resulted in a higher intracellular content of mercury in B strain than in Smr strain. In contrast, in both culture conditions, the fraction of mercury removed from medium by B strain was lower than that attained by Smr strain, whereas the ability to bio-transform (reduce) Hg2+ was two times higher in the mutant strain. The results suggested that Smr strain cells acquired an ability to remove Hg2+ from the medium, which was not associated to accumulation and which conferred protection against mercury.

Keywords

Mercury Euglena gracilis Streptomycin Dark–light regime 
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Notes

Acknowledgements

The present work was partially supported by grants from CONACyT-Mexico (CB-2007-01 No. 80534) and Instituto de Ciencia y Tecnologia del Distrito Federal (2008-PICS08-5).

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010

Authors and Affiliations

  • Silvia Devars
    • 1
  • José Salud Rodríguez-Zavala
    • 1
  • Rafael Moreno-Sánchez
    • 1
  1. 1.Departamento de BioquímicaInstituto Nacional de CardiologíaMexicoMexico

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