Isolation and Characterization of Mercury Resistant Bacteria from Haldia river sediments

Abstract

The Mercury is known as a toxic heavy metal. The present work is aimed to isolate and characterize mercury resistant bacterial strains from the Haldia dock area river sediment. Bacterial cells are grown in 10 ppm of HgCl2 containing nutrient media. These isolates were resistant up to 150 ppm of mercury salt. The bacterial isolates were identified to belong to the genera: Serratia and Streptococcus or Enterococcus.. Many of the chosen isolates were tested for growth in a variety of antibiotics. Results of this study demonstrate the occurrence of diverse groups of marine bacteria capable of high tolerance to mercury .Mercury tolerant strains from dock area can be used to detect mercury toxicity in this type of polluted area and can be used for bioremediation of mercury toxicity.