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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, July 2001, p. 3208-3215, Vol. 67, No. 7
Department of Soil, Water and Environmental
Science, The University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721
Received 6 November 2000/Accepted 1 May 2001
Although metals are thought to inhibit the ability of
microorganisms to degrade organic pollutants, several microbial
mechanisms of resistance to metal are known to exist. This study
examined the potential of cadmium-resistant microorganisms to reduce
soluble cadmium levels to enhance degradation of
2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) under conditions of
cocontamination. Four cadmium-resistant soil microorganisms were
examined in this study. Resistant up to a cadmium concentration of 275 µg ml
0099-2240/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/AEM.67.7.3208-3215.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Dual-Bioaugmentation Strategy To Enhance
Remediation of Cocontaminated Soil
1, these isolates represented the common soil
genera Arthrobacter, Bacillus, and
Pseudomonas. Isolates Pseudomonas sp.
strain H1 and Bacillus sp. strain H9 had
a plasmid-dependent intracellular mechanism of cadmium detoxification,
reducing soluble cadmium levels by 36%. Isolates
Arthrobacter strain D9 and Pseudomonas strain I1a both produced an extracellular polymer layer that bound and
reduced soluble cadmium levels by 22 and 11%, respectively. Although
none of the cadmium-resistant isolates could degrade 2,4-D, results of
dual-bioaugmentation studies conducted with both pure culture and
laboratory soil microcosms showed that each of four cadmium-resistant
isolates supported the degradation of 500-µg ml
1 2,4-D
by the cadmium-sensitive 2,4-D degrader Ralstonia
eutropha JMP134. Degradation occurred in the presence of up to
24 µg of cadmium ml
1 in pure culture and up to 60 µg
of cadmium g
1 in amended soil microcosms. In a pilot
field study conducted with 5-gallon soil bioreactors, the
dual-bioaugmentation strategy was again evaluated. Here, the
cadmium-resistant isolate Pseudomonas strain
H1 enhanced degradation of 2,4-D in reactors inoculated with R. eutropha JMP134 in the presence of 60 µg of
cadmium g
1. Overall, dual bioaugmentation appears to be a
viable approach in the remediation of cocontaminated soils.
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of
Biology, CB #171, P.O. Box 173364, University of Colorado, Denver, CO 80217. Phone: (303) 556-6592. Fax: (303) 556-4352. E-mail:
troane{at}carbon.cudenver.edu.
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