Mining activities can lead to the generation of large quantities of heavy metal laden wastes which are released in an uncontrolled manner, causing widespread contamination of the ecosystem. Though some heavy metals classified as essential are important for normal life physiological processes, higher concentrations above stipulated levels have deleterious effects on human health and biota. Bacte...

The Klip River has suffered from severe anthropogenic effects from industrial activities such as mining. Long-term exposure to heavy metal pollution has led to the development of heavy metal resistant strains of Pseudomonas sp. KR23, Lysinibacillus sp. KR25, and E. coli KR29. The objectives of this study were to characterize the genetics of copper and chromate resistance of the isolates. Copper...

bioremediation of heavy metals remains a major challenge in environmental biotechnology. biosorption is a novel technique for decreasing metal ion content in the waste water. biosorption experiments for cu (ii) were investigated in this study using bacteria isolated from the industrial effluent. the results showed that the dead cells of pseudomonas sp. were an efficient adsorbent of cu (ii). fo...

algae have been proven efficient biological vectors for heavy metal uptake. in order to further study their biosorption potential, two strains spirogyra sp. and spirulina sp. have been studied under different initial metal concentrations. in recent years, the biosorption processes have been studied extensively using microbial biomass as biosorbent for heavy metal ions removal. in these studies,...

Two microbial mats found inside two old (gold and uranium) mines in Zloty Stok and Kowary located in SW Poland seem to form a natural barrier that traps heavy metals leaking from dewatering systems. We performed complex physiological and metagenomic analyses to determine which microorganisms are the main driving agents responsible for self-purification of the mine waters and identify metabolic ...

Resistance nodulation cell division (RND)-based efflux complexes mediate multidrug and heavy-metal resistance in many Gram-negative bacteria. Efflux of toxic compounds is driven by membrane proton/substrate antiporters (RND protein) in the plasma membrane, linked by a membrane fusion protein (MFP) to an outer-membrane protein. The three-component complex forms an efflux system that spans the en...

With the intention of screening for heavy metal tolerance, a number of bacteria were isolated and characterized from a pristine soil. Two Gram positive isolates were identified as Paenibacillus sp. and Bacillus thuringeinsis. Tolerance of Cd, Cu and Zn by these bacteria was studied and found that both bacteria were highly sensitive to Cu compared to other two metals. Both bacteria showed the sa...