Binish M.B. , Sruthy S. , Mahesh Mohan

School of Environmental Sciences, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala, India
Author    Correspondence author
International Journal of Marine Science, 2015, Vol. 5, No. 50   doi: 10.5376/ijms.2015.05.0050
Received: 12 Jun., 2015    Accepted: 13 Jul., 2015    Published: 01 Sep., 2015

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Binish M.B., Sruthy S. and Mohan M., 2015, Effect of Heavy Metals (Pb, Cd, Cu) on the Growth of Sulphate Reduction associated Bacterium Clostridium bifermentans Isolated from Cochin estuary, Southwest coast of India, International Journal of Marine Science, 5(50): 1-5 (doi: 10.5376/ijms.2015.05.0050)

Heavy metals like Lead (Pb), Cadmium (Cd) and Copper (Cu) causes serious environmental issues. The present study investigated the tolerance and growth of Clostridium bifermentans isolated from Cochin estuary, southwest coast of India to three different heavy metals such as Pb, Cd and Cu. Growth pattern of Clostridium bifermentans in different concentrations of selected heavy metals were determined using spectrophotometer. Heavy metal tolerance (Cu, Cd, and Pb) were determined by minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC). The strain exhibited multiple heavy metal resistances and showed markedly high tolerance to cadmium and lead at minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 12 µg/mL followed by copper (10 µg/mL). Presence of heavy metals significantly affected the growth of Clostridium bifermentans. Presence of lead enhanced the growth of the strain while cadmium and copper diminished the growth.

Bioremediation; Pollution; Metal tolerance; Anaerobic