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Bacterial Heavy Metal Resistance Systems and Possibility of Bioremediation

  • Chapter
Biotechnology: Bridging Research and Applications

Abstract

Bioremediation of heavy metal wastes by either bioaccumulation or by enzymatic detoxification has not as yet been put to practical use. The potential for the former has been demonstrated by a couple of biotechnology start-up companies (Brierley, et al., 1986, Brierley, et al., 1989; Darnall, 1989; Darnall, et al., 1989). For enzymatic detoxification, mercury-contaminated sludge has effectively been decontaminated at a laboratory scale (Hansen, et al., 1984; Hansen, personal communication). Here in a Symposium on Applied Biotechnology (in particular as related to problems faced by the military), I will describe the potential for these two quite different methods for bioremediation of toxic mineral wastes: firstly bioaccumulation, for which there is an applied microbiology literature but less basic science and theoretical understanding, and then the redox conversion of toxic heavy metals, for which bioremediation might be accomplished by oxidation or reduction from a more toxic form to a less toxic (or readily removed from the environment) form. These three bioconversions are reduction of Hg(II) and Hg(I) ions to metallic Hg(0), the oxidation of more toxic arsenite [As(III)] to arsenate[As(V)]; and the reduction of more toxic chromate [Cr(VI)] to less toxic and more readily removed chromium ions [Cr(III)]. Laboratory understanding of the redox processes is better developed than more applied or field development.

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  1. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Illinois College of Medicine, Box 6998, Chicago, IL, 60680, USA

    Simon Silver

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  1. Research and Laboratory Management, U.S. Army, The Pentagon, Washington, D.C., 20310-0103, USA

    Daphne Kamely (Director) (Director)

  2. Department of Microbiology, University of Illinois College of Medicine, Chicago, IL, 60612, USA

    Ananda M. Chakrabarty

  3. Departments of Neurology and Physiological Chemistry, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, 53705, USA

    Steven E. Kornguth

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© 1991 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Silver, S. (1991). Bacterial Heavy Metal Resistance Systems and Possibility of Bioremediation. In: Kamely, D., Chakrabarty, A.M., Kornguth, S.E. (eds) Biotechnology: Bridging Research and Applications. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3456-9_18

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3456-9_18

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-5529-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-011-3456-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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