Abstract
Mercury-resistant bacteria were isolated from permafrost sediments of Kolyma lowland and Canada existing over five thousand to two million years. Their content was shown to vary within the range 0.001–2.9% and to depend on the amount of mercury in sampling sites (coefficient of correlation 0.75). A collection of mercury-resistant bacterial strains was created. In this collection, various representatives of both Gram-positive bacteria (Bacillus, Exiguobacterium, Micrococcus, Arthrobacter) and Gram-negative bacteria (Pseudomonas, Acinetobacter, Plesiomonas, Myxobacteriales) were identified. Most resistant bacteria were found to contain determinants homologous to mer-operons of contemporary bacteria. The isolated strains of paleobacteria are proposed to be used for a comparative structural study of contemporary and ancient plasmids and transposons carrying mercury resistance determinants.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Khesin, R.B. and Karasyova, E.V., Mercury-Resistant Plasmids in Bacteria from a Mercury and Antimony Deposit Area, Mol. Gen. Genet., vol. 197, pp. 280–285.
Kelly, W.J. and Reanney, D.S., Mercury Resistance among Soil Bacteria: Ecology and Transferability of Genes Encoding Resistance, Soil Biol. Biochem., vol. 16, pp. 1–8.
Summers, A.O., Organization, Expression, and Evolution of Genes for Mercury Resistance, Annu. Rev. Microbiol., vol. 40, pp. 607–634.
Davies, J.E., Origins, Acquisition and Dissemination of Antibiotic Resistance Determinants, Antibiotic Resistance: Origins, Evolution, Selection and Spread, Chadwick, D.J. and Goode, J., Eds., New York: Wiley, pp. 15–27.
Hobman, J.L. and Brown, N.L., Bacterial Mercury Resistance Genes, Metal Ions in Biological Systems, Sigel, H. and Sigel, A., Eds., New York: Marcel Dekker, 1997, vol. 34, pp. 527–567.
Osborn, A.M., Bruce, K.D., Strike, P., and Ritchie, D.A., Distribution, Diversity and Evolution of the Bacterial Mercury Resistance (mer) Operon, FEMS Microbiol. Rev., 1997, vol. 19, pp. 239–262.
Tanaka, M., Yamamoto, T., and Sawai, T., Evolution of Complex Resistance Transposons from an Ancestral Mercury Transposon, J. Bacteriol., 1983, vol. 153, pp. 1432–1438.
Grinsted, J., De La Cruz, F., and Schmitt, R., The Tn21 Subgroup of Bacterial Transposable Elements, Plasmid, 1990, vol. 24, pp. 163–189.
Liebert, C.A., Hall, R.M., and Summers, A.O., Transposon Tn21, Flagship of the Floating Genome, Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev., 1999, vol. 63, pp. 507–522.
Vorobyova, E., Soina, V., Gorlenko, M., et al., The Deep Cold Biosphere: Facts and Hypothesis, FEMS Microbiol. Rev., 1997, vol. 20, pp. 277–290.
Barkay, T., Adaptation of Aquatic Microbial Communities to Hg +2 Stress, Appl. Environ. Microbiol., 1987, vol. 53, pp. 2725–2732.
Nikiforov, V.G., Bass, I.A., Bogdanova, E.S., et al., Distribution of Mercury Resistance Transposons in Environmental Bacterial Populations, Mol. Biol. (Moscow), 1999, vol. 33, pp. 55–62.
Gilichinsky, D.A., Vorobyova, E.A., Erochina, L.G., et al., Long-Term Preservation of Microbial Ecosystems in Permafrost, Adv. Space Res., 1992, vol. 12, no. 4, pp. 255–263.
Sambrook, J., Fritsch, E.F., and Maniatis, T., Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual, Cold Spring Harbor, New York: Cold Spring Harbor Lab., 1989.
Juni, E., Genetics and Physiology of Acinetobacter, Annu. Rev. Microbiol., 1978, vol. 32, pp. 349–371.
Vitkus, G.A., Zelyukova, Yu.V., and Poluektov, N.S., Mercury Detection with Atomic Adsorption, Zavod. Lab., 1974, vol. 40, pp. 949–951.
Kabata-Pendias, A. and Pendias, Kh., Mikroelementy v pochvakh i rasteniyakh (Microelements in Soil and Plants), Moscow: Mir, 1986.
Lapage, S.P., Shelton, J.E., Mitchell, T.G., and Mackenzie, A.R., Culture Collections and the Preservation of Bacteria, Methods in Microbiology, Norris, J.R. and Ribbons, D.W., Eds., 1970, vol. 3A, p. 135.
Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology, Krieg, N.R. and Holt, J.G., Eds., Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins, 1986, vol. 1.
Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology, Sneath, P.H.A., Mair, N.C., Sharpe, M.E., and Holt, J.G., Eds., Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins, 1986, vol. 2.
The Prokaryotes: A Handbook on Habitats, Isolation and Identification of Bacteria, Starr, M.P., et al., Eds., Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1981.
Belliveau, B.H., Starodub, M.E., and Trevors, J.T., Occurrence of Antibiotic and Metal Resistance and Plasmids in Bacillus Strains Isolated from Marine Sediment, Can. J. Microbiol., 1991, vol. 37, pp. 513–520.
Lomovskaya, O.L. and Nikiforov, V.G., Nucleotide Sequences of Mercury Resistance Determinants of Bacteria Inhabiting Mercury Deposits: Detection of Families of Recombinant Mercury Resistance Transposons in Plasmids of Bacteria of the Genus Acinetobacter, Genetika (Moscow), 1988, vol. 24, pp. 1539–1549.
Bogdanova, E.S. and Mindlin, S.Z., Occurrence of Two Structural Types of Mercury Reductases among Gram-Positive Bacteria, FEMS Microbiol. Lett., 1991, vol. 78, pp. 277–280.
Bogdanova, E.S., Mindlin, S.Z., Kalyaeva, E.S., and Nikiforov, V.G., The Diversity of Mercury Reductases among Mercury-Resistant Bacteria, FEBS Lett., 1988, vol. 234, pp. 280–282.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Petrova, M.A., Mindlin, S.Z., Gorlenko, Z.M. et al. Mercury-Resistant Bacteria from Permafrost Sediments and Prospects for their Use in Comparative Studies of Mercury Resistance Determinants. Russian Journal of Genetics 38, 1330–1334 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021167615633
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021167615633