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Bacterial Metal-Scavengers Newly Isolated from Indonesian Gold Mine-Impacted Area: Bacillus altitudinis MIM12 as Novel Tools for Bio-Transformation of Mercury

  • Environmental Microbiology
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Abstract

Selikat river, located in the north part of Bengkulu Province, Indonesia, has critical environmental and ecological issues of contamination by mercury due to artisanal small-scale gold mining (ASGM) activities. The present study focused on the identification and bioremediation efficiency of the mercury-resistant bacteria (MRB) isolated from ASGM-impacted areas in Lebong Tambang village, Bengkulu Province, and analyzed their merA gene function in transforming Hg2+ to Hg0. Thirty-four MRB isolates were isolated, and four out of the 34 isolates exhibited not only the highest degree of resistance to Hg (up to 200 ppm) but also to cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), and lead (Pb). Further analysis shows that all four selected isolates harbor a merA operon-encoded mercuric ion (Hg2+) reductase enzyme, with the Hg bioremediation efficiency varying from 71.60 to 91.30%. Additionally, the bioremediation efficiency for Cd, Cr, Cu, and Pb ranged from 54.36 to 98.37%. Among the 34, two isolates identified as Bacillus altitudinis possess effective and superior multi-metal degrading capacity up to 91.30% for Hg, 98.07% for Cu, and 54.36% for Cr. A pilot-scale study exhibited significant in situ bioremediation of Hg from gold mine tailings of 82.10 and 95.16% at 4- and 8-day intervals, respectively. Interestingly, translated nucleotide blast against bacteria and Bacilli merA sequence databases suggested that B. altitudinis harbor merA gene is the first case among Bacilli with the possibility exhibits a novel mechanism of bioremediation, considering our new finding. This study is the first to report the structural and functional Hg-resistant bacterial diversity of unexplored ASGM-impacted areas, emphasizing their biotechnological potential as novel tools for the biological transformation and adsorption of mercury and other toxic metals.

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Data Availability

The 16S rRNA and merA sequences that support the findings of this study were deposited in GenBank-NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information) with accession codes OM654554, OM654555, OM654556, OM654557, UOG94996, UOG94997, UOG94998, and UOG94999.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Center for Horticultural and Estate Crops, Research Organization for Agriculture and Food, National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), Cibinong Science Center, Bogor, 16915, Indonesia

    Wiwiek Harsonowati, Sri Rahayuningsih, Erny Yuniarti, Dwi Ningsih Susilowati, Dyah Manohara, Sri Widyaningsih, Alina Akhdiya, Yadi Suryadi & Titi Tentrem

  2. Agrobiology and Bioresources Department, School of Agriculture, Utsunomiya University, 350 Mine-Machi, Utsunomiya, 321-8505, Tochigi, Japan

    Wiwiek Harsonowati

  3. Biology Department, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science, Universitas Bengkulu, Jalan W.R Supratman, Kandang Limun, Bengkulu, 38125, Indonesia

    Sipriyadi

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Contributions

Wiwiek Harsonowati: conceptualization, design research, methodology, conducted experiments, data analysis, visualization, investigation, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing final manuscript. Sri Rahayuningsih, Erny Yuniarti, Dwi Ningsih Susilowati, Dyah Manohara: methodology, investigation. Sipriyadi, Sri Widyaningsih, Alina Akhdiya, Yadi Suryadi, Titi Tentrem: investigation. All authors read and approved the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Wiwiek Harsonowati.

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Harsonowati, W., Rahayuningsih, S., Yuniarti, E. et al. Bacterial Metal-Scavengers Newly Isolated from Indonesian Gold Mine-Impacted Area: Bacillus altitudinis MIM12 as Novel Tools for Bio-Transformation of Mercury. Microb Ecol 86, 1646–1660 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-023-02203-z

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