All the regulations that define a maximum concentration of metals in the receiving soil are based on total soil metal concentration. However, the potential toxicity of a heavy metal in the soil depends on its speciation and availability. We studied the effects of heavy metal speciation and availability on soil microorganism activities along a Cu/Zn contamination gradient. Microbial biomass and ...

Urbanization, industrialization and other human activities has introduced a number of heavy metal contaminants in the environment. Microorganisms inhabiting such sites are well efficient in developing resistance strategies against toxic heavy metal stress. The present work qualitatively describes uptake of nickel (Ni) and lead (Pb) by epiphytic root bacteria isolated from the rhizosphere of the...

Glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) compose a family of multifunctional enzymes that play important roles in the detoxification of xenobiotics and the oxidative stress response. In the present study, twenty four GST genes from the transcriptome of a metal-tolerant dark septate endophyte (DSE), Exophiala pisciphila, were identified based on sequence homology, and their responses to various heavy m...

In biosciences and biotechnology, the expanding application of physicochemical approaches using modern instrumental techniques is an efficient strategy to obtain valuable and often unique information at the molecular level. In this work, we applied a combination of vibrational (Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), FT-Raman) spectroscopic techniques, useful in overall structural and compositional ...

Many heavy metals are essential for metabolic processes, but are toxic at elevated levels. Metal tolerance proteins provide resistance to this toxicity. In this study, we identified and characterized a heavy metal-associated protein, AcHMA1, from the halophyte, Atriplex canescens. Sequence analysis has revealed that AcHMA1 contains two heavy metal binding domains. Treatments with metals (Fe, Cu...

A study was undertaken to examine the effects of the heavy metals copper, lead, and zinc on biofilm and planktonic Pseudomonas aeruginosa. A rotating-disk biofilm reactor was used to generate biofilm and free-swimming cultures to test their relative levels of resistance to heavy metals. It was determined that biofilms were anywhere from 2 to 600 times more resistant to heavy metal stress than f...

heavy metal pollution all around the world has become a major environmental concern and the bioremediation of polluted environments is an increasingly popular strategy due to both its efficiency and safety. in this study, a bacterial strain resistant to heavy metal was isolated from metal contaminated sites. strain mkh2 was removed pb (ii) with 95.06%. this isolate was also resistant to zinc, c...

The present study deals with Bacterial response as determinant of heavy metals stress and antibiotics by isolation, identification and characterization of heavy metal resistant bacteria which was isolated from sewage effluent collected in three different places of Ganga river in Allahabad, The two isolates were selected based on high concentration of heavy metal and antibiotic resistances. Morp...

A set of biomarkers was used to assess the impact of heavy metal pollution by a ferro-nickel smelting plant in Larymna bay (North Evoikos Gulf, Greece). These included a biomarker reflecting health status of an organism (scope for growth, SFG), a cellular biomarker of heavy metal exposure (composition of metal-containing granules), and two biochemical biomarkers reflecting oxidative stress (glu...