Overview of Copper Resistance and Oxidative Stress Response in Amycolatopsis tucumanensis, a Useful Strain for Bioremediation

DAVILA COSTA, J.S, KOTHE, E., AMOROSO, M.J., ABATE, C.M.

Actinobacteria, Application in Bioremediation and Production of Industrial Enzymes

CRC Press

Año: 2013; p. 74 - 86

Heavy metal pollution is one of the most important environmental problems today. Various industries, such as mining and smelting of metalliferous, surface finishing industry, energy and fuel production, fertilizer and pesticide industry and application, leatherworking, photography, aerospace and atomic energy installation, etc; produce and discharge wastes containing different heavy metals into the environment. Metals as a kind of resource are becoming shortage and also bring about serious environmental pollution, threatening human health and ecosystem. Three kinds of heavy metals are of concern, including toxic metals (such as Hg, Cr, Pb, Zn, Cu, Ni, Cd, As, Co, Sn, etc), precious metals (such as Pd, Pt, Ag, Au, Ru etc) and radionuclides (such as U, Th, Ra, Am, etc). Conventional physicochemical treatments methods, which have been practiced for several decades for the removal of toxic heavy metals from waste waters, may be ineffective or very expensive. These disadvantages become more pronounced at metal concentrations less than 100 mg l-1. It is well known that heavy metals contamination is a widespread phenomenon, this is especially true in developing countries where high-cost remediation technology is not affordable. The potential of using bioaccumulation or biosorption, which have been used for the removal of heavy metal ions by microorganisms, has become an attractive subject over the past decade. It is the pragmatic goal of current bioprocess research on metal removal from treatable sources to identify species of microorganisms that are able of efficient uptake environmentally and economically important metals such as copper. Therefore, screening for microbes with high accumulation capacities and studying their stable resistance characteristics is an inevitable part of any remediation strategy.