Cadmium- and mercury-resistant Bacillus strains from a salt marsh and from Boston Harbor
Bacteria resistant to cadmium or mercury or both were isolated from the Great Sippewissett Marsh (Cape Cod, Mass.) and from Boston Harbor. Many of these metal-resistant isolates were gram-positive aerobic sporeformers, although not necessarily isolated as spores. Although several of the isolated strains bore plasmids, cadmium and mercury resistances appeared to be, for the most part, chromosomally encoded. DNA sequence homology of the gram-positive cadmium- and mercury-resistant isolates was not demonstrable with metal resistance genes from plasmids of either gram-positive (pI258) or gram-negative (pDB7) origin. Cadmium resistance of all the marsh isolates tested resulted from reduced Cd/sup 2 +/ transport. On the other hand, three cadmium-resistant harbor isolates displayed considerable influx but no efflux of Cd/sup 2 +/. Hg-resistant strains detoxified mercury by transforming Hg/sup 2 +/ to volatile Hg0 via mercuric reductase.
- Research Organization:
- Brandeis Univ., Waltham, MA
- OSTI ID:
- 6775138
- Journal Information:
- Appl. Environ. Microbiol.; (United States), Journal Name: Appl. Environ. Microbiol.; (United States) Vol. 6; ISSN AEMID
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTANT EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGS. AND BIOL. MAT.
AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS
BACILLUS
BACTERIA
BIOLOGICAL ADAPTATION
CADMIUM
ECOSYSTEMS
ELEMENTS
ENZYMES
FEDERAL REGION I
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
MANGANESE
MARSHES
MASSACHUSETTS
MERCURY
METALS
MICROORGANISMS
NORTH AMERICA
OXIDOREDUCTASES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
R FACTORS
SEAWATER
SEDIMENTS
TOLERANCE
TRANSITION ELEMENTS
USA
WATER
WETLANDS