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Toxicity and degradation of metal-complexed cyanide by a bacterial consortium under sulfate-reducing conditions

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Abstract

Free cyanide at 1 mm decreased the initial sulfate reduction rate of a batch culture of granular sludge from 0.3 to 0.14 mmol d−1 g−1 SS (suspended solid), whereas 0.5 mm cyanide had a minimal effect (0.25 mmol d−1 g−1 SS). The order of toxicity of metal-complexed cyanides to the sludge was as follows: zinc-complexed cyanide (most toxic) > free cyanide = nickel-complexed cyanide > copper-complexed cyanide (least toxic), which also corresponds well with the order of the stability (dissociation) constants of the metal-cyanide complexes. A consortium degrading cyanide was enriched using nickel cyanide as the sole nitrogen source. This consortium completely removed 0.5 mm of nickel-complexed cyanide under sulfate-reducing conditions in 11 d. Analysis of clone library of 16S rRNA genes shows that the consortium was composed of three major phylotypes including Desulfovibrio.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, 305-701, Korea

    Zhe-Xue Quan & Sung-Taik Lee

  2. Biological Resources Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Daejeon, 305-333, Korea

    Jin-Woo Bae, Sung-Keun Rhee & Yong-Gyun Cho

Authors
  1. Zhe-Xue Quan
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  2. Jin-Woo Bae
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  3. Sung-Keun Rhee
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  4. Yong-Gyun Cho
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  5. Sung-Taik Lee
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Quan, ZX., Bae, JW., Rhee, SK. et al. Toxicity and degradation of metal-complexed cyanide by a bacterial consortium under sulfate-reducing conditions. Biotechnology Letters 26, 1007–1011 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:BILE.0000030048.04282.da

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:BILE.0000030048.04282.da

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