Assessment of Bioremediation Potential of Cellulosimicrobium sp. for Treatment of Multiple Heavy Metals

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.