Abstract

ALANIZ-ANDRADE, Azucena Lucero et al. Arsenic tolerance in bacterial cultures isolated from metal contaminated soil. Acta univ [online]. 2017, vol.27, n.3, pp.9-18. ISSN 2007-9621.  https://doi.org/10.15174/au.2017.1189.

Several centuries of uninterrupted mining activities in Zacatecas, Mexico has caused soil pollution with toxic metals and metalloids such as arsenic. In this study, the arsenic-tolerance of ten bacterial isolates from a metal contaminated site were analyzed, and high tolerance was observed in both solid (40 mM - 300 mM of sodium dihydrogen arsenate and 4 mM - 25 mM of sodium arsenite) and liquid media (7.2 mM and 11.3 mM arsenite). The arsenic tolerant isolates were identified by biochemical and 16S rRNA-encoding gene amplification analysis as members of the Bacillus, Micrococcus, and Acinetobacter genus. A study of resistance to antibiotics revealed a high prevalence of resistance to beta-lactams and moderate prevalence to nitrofurantoin, vancomycin, and ceftriaxone, suggesting that the antibiotic multiresistance of the isolates is probably related to arsenic tolerance through a plasmid or chromosomally encoded resistance mechanism.

Keywords : Arsenic tolerance; antibiotic resistance; Bacillus; Micrococcus; Acinetobacter.

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