Isolation and characterization of a phosphate solubilizing heavy metal tolerant bacterium from River Ganga, West Bengal, India

Abstract

Phosphates solubilizing bacterial (PSB) strains were isolated from the jute mill effluent discharge area of the Ganga river water at Bansberia, West Bengal, India. Experimental studies found that the strain KUPSB16 was effective in solubilization of phosphate with phosphate solubilization index (SI) = 3.14 in Pikovskaya’s agar plates along with maximum solubilized phosphate production of 208.18 g mL-1 in broth culture. Highest drop in pH value was associated with maximum amount of phosphate solubilization by the PSB strain KUPSB16 where pH decreased to 3.53 from initial value of 7.0±0.2. The isolated PSB strains were tested for tolerance against four heavy metals such as cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), lead (Pb) and zinc (Zn) at concentrations 1-15 mM. The results showed that most of the PSB isolates grew well at low concentrations of heavy metals and their number gradually decreased as the concentration increased. Isolated PSB strain KUPSB16 was tested for its multiple metal resistances. Minimal inhibitory concentrations (MIC) for Cd2+, Cr6+, Pb2+ and Zn2+ in tris-minimal broth medium were 4.2, 5.5, 3.6 and 9.5 mM respectively. The MIC values for the metals studied on agar medium was higher than in broth medium and ranged from 4.8-11.0 mM. The isolated bacterial strain KUPSB16 was subjected to morphological, physiological and biochemical characterization and identified as the species of the genus Bacillus. The phosphate solubilizing bacterium possessing the properties of multiple heavy metal tolerance in heavy metal contaminated areas might be exploited for bioremediation studies in future.

Keywords

• phosphate solubilizing bacteria
• heavy metal
• River Ganga