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Occurrence of heavy metal‐resistance in microflora from serpentine soil of Andaman
Author(s) -
Pal Arundhati,
Dutta Suman,
Mukherjee P. K.,
Paul A. K.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
journal of basic microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.58
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1521-4028
pISSN - 0233-111X
DOI - 10.1002/jobm.200410499
Subject(s) - soil water , chemistry , population , chromium , metal , bacteria , cobalt , environmental chemistry , zoology , horticulture , nuclear chemistry , biology , ecology , inorganic chemistry , genetics , demography , organic chemistry , sociology
Serpentine soils collected from Saddle Hills, Chidyatapu and Rutland of Andaman Islands, India were analyzed for physico‐chemical and microbiological characteristics and compared with those from adjacent non‐serpentine localities. The serpentine soils contained high levels of nickel (1740.0–8033.4 mg/kg dry soil), cobalt (93.2–533.4 mg/kg dry soil) and chromium (302.9–4437.0 mg/kg dry soil), in addition to 62–152 g of iron and 37–60 g of magnesium per kg dry soil. Characteristically the serpentine soils showed low microbial density (6.2–11.3 × 10 6 colony forming unit/g soil) and activity (1.7–3.5 µg fluorescein/g dry soil/h) than non‐serpentine outcrops. Serpentine microbial population was dominated by bacteria which represented 5.12 to 9.5 × 10 6 cfu/g of soil, while the fungal population ranged from 0.17 to 3.21 × 10 6 cfu/g of soil. A total of 342 (200 from serpentine and 142 from non‐serpentine soils) isolates were compared for Ni, Co and Cr resistance. Serpentine microflora was in general, highly resistant than non‐serpentine ones and showed a metal‐resistance profile of Cr > Ni > Co. Amongst the serpentine isolates, 8 and 11 bacteria tolerated >12.0 m M Ni and >16.0 m M Cr respectively, while 6 fungal isolates showed a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) value >8.0 m M Co. These 25 serpentine strains also showed co‐resistance to Cu, Zn and Mn but were sensitive to Hg and Cd. The selected bacterial isolates were resistant to ampicillin, penicillin G and polymyxin B, whereas fungal strains showed resistance to amphotericin B, nystatin and fusidic acid. (© 2005 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)