• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.129-133
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• 2014

BACKGROUND: This study was performed for selecting yeast mutants with a high tolerance for targeted metals, and determining whether yeasts strains tolerant to multiple heavy metals could be induced by sequential adaptations. METHODS AND RESULTS: A mutant yeast strain tolerant to the heavy metals cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), and zinc (Zn) was selected by sequential elevated exposures to each metal with intermittent mutant isolation steps. A Cd-tolerant mutant was isolated by growing yeast cells in media containing $CdCl_2$ concentrations that were gradually increased to 1 mM. Then the Cd-tolerant mutant was gradually exposed to increasing levels of $CuCl_2$ in growth media until a concentration of 7 mM was reached, thus generating a strain tolerant to both Cd and Cu. In the subsequent steps, this mutant was exposed to $NiCl_2$ (up to 8 mM), and a resultant isolate was further exposed to $ZnCl_2$ (up to 60 mM), allowing the derivation of a yeast mutant that was simultaneously tolerant to Cd, Cu, Ni, and Zn. CONCLUSION: This method of inducing tolerance to multiple targeted heavy metals in yeast will be useful in the bioremediation of heavy metals.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.269-277
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• 2019

In the present study, we have studied the bioremediating capability of bacterial strain against six heavy metals. The strain was isolated from river Yamuna, New Delhi which is a very rich repository of bioremediating flora and fauna. The strain was found to be Gram positive as indicated by Gram staining. The strain was characterized using 16s rRNA gene sequencing and the BlastN result showed its close resemblance with the Cellulosimicrobium sp. As each treatment has its own toxicity eliciting expression of different factors, we observed varied growth characteristics of the bacterial isolate and its protein content in response to different heavy metals. The assessment of its bioremediation capability showed that the strain Cellulosimicrobium sp. has potential to consume or sequester the six heavy metals in this study in the following order iron > lead > zinc > cooper > nickel > cadmium. Thus, the strain Cellulosimicrobium sp. isolated in the present study can be a good model system to understand the molecular mechanism behind its bioremediating capabilities under multiple stress conditions.