Heavy metal pollution is a worldwide problem with many associated health risks, including bone loss, kidney damage, and several forms of cancer. There is a great need of bioremediation of these toxic metals from the e...Heavy metal pollution is a worldwide problem with many associated health risks, including bone loss, kidney damage, and several forms of cancer. There is a great need of bioremediation of these toxic metals from the environment, as well as implementing a monitoring system to control the spreading pollution. This study focuses on the bioremediation potential of Rhodobacter sphaeroides in the presence of the toxic gold chloride (AuCl3). Growth characteristics of the bacterial cells exposed to a range of toxic gold concentrations were analyzed through the growth kinetics and the colony forming units under aerobic, photosynthetic, and anaerobic growth conditions. The localization of the gold particles within two cellular fractions, cytoplasm and the plasma membrane, are analyzed using Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES). Results of this study demonstrated the photosynthetic growth condition as best suited for the metal tolerance, compared to the aerobic and anaerobic growth conditions. Results also revealed the overall accumulation and localization of gold particles, while not different between the membrane and the cytoplasmic fractions increased at different concentrations of the gold contamination. The results of the localization under photosynthetic growth condition revealed the accumulation reached the highest very quickly, and an overall shift in localization of the gold particles from an equal distribution to an increase within the membrane fraction at the highest concentrations of gold contamination. The localization of the gold particles was validated by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) where the results confirmed the increase in accumulation within the membrane, and photosynthetic membranes, of R. sphaeroides.展开更多
There is a worldwide distribution of heavy metal pollution that can be managed with a bioremediation approach using microorganisms. Several bacterial species belonging to the Proteobacteria have been shown to tolerate...There is a worldwide distribution of heavy metal pollution that can be managed with a bioremediation approach using microorganisms. Several bacterial species belonging to the Proteobacteria have been shown to tolerate heavy metal stress, including toxic salts of noblemetals. Rhodobacter sphaeroides, a model bacterium has previously been utilized for bioremediation studies. A bioinformatics approach was employed here to identify the distribution of genes associated with heavy metal tolerance among the sequenced bacterial genomes currently available on the NCBI database. The distribution of these genes among different groups of bacteria and the Cluster of Orthologous Groups (COGs) were further characterized. A total of 170,000 heavy metal related genes were identified across all bacterial species, with a majority of the genes found in Proteobacteria (46%) and Terrabacteria (39%). Analysis of COGs revealed that the majority of heavy metal related genes belong to metabolism (COG 3), including ionic transport, amino acid biosynthesis, and energy production.展开更多
文摘Heavy metal pollution is a worldwide problem with many associated health risks, including bone loss, kidney damage, and several forms of cancer. There is a great need of bioremediation of these toxic metals from the environment, as well as implementing a monitoring system to control the spreading pollution. This study focuses on the bioremediation potential of Rhodobacter sphaeroides in the presence of the toxic gold chloride (AuCl3). Growth characteristics of the bacterial cells exposed to a range of toxic gold concentrations were analyzed through the growth kinetics and the colony forming units under aerobic, photosynthetic, and anaerobic growth conditions. The localization of the gold particles within two cellular fractions, cytoplasm and the plasma membrane, are analyzed using Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES). Results of this study demonstrated the photosynthetic growth condition as best suited for the metal tolerance, compared to the aerobic and anaerobic growth conditions. Results also revealed the overall accumulation and localization of gold particles, while not different between the membrane and the cytoplasmic fractions increased at different concentrations of the gold contamination. The results of the localization under photosynthetic growth condition revealed the accumulation reached the highest very quickly, and an overall shift in localization of the gold particles from an equal distribution to an increase within the membrane fraction at the highest concentrations of gold contamination. The localization of the gold particles was validated by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) where the results confirmed the increase in accumulation within the membrane, and photosynthetic membranes, of R. sphaeroides.
文摘There is a worldwide distribution of heavy metal pollution that can be managed with a bioremediation approach using microorganisms. Several bacterial species belonging to the Proteobacteria have been shown to tolerate heavy metal stress, including toxic salts of noblemetals. Rhodobacter sphaeroides, a model bacterium has previously been utilized for bioremediation studies. A bioinformatics approach was employed here to identify the distribution of genes associated with heavy metal tolerance among the sequenced bacterial genomes currently available on the NCBI database. The distribution of these genes among different groups of bacteria and the Cluster of Orthologous Groups (COGs) were further characterized. A total of 170,000 heavy metal related genes were identified across all bacterial species, with a majority of the genes found in Proteobacteria (46%) and Terrabacteria (39%). Analysis of COGs revealed that the majority of heavy metal related genes belong to metabolism (COG 3), including ionic transport, amino acid biosynthesis, and energy production.
