title: Cloning ofmerA Gene fromMethylotenera Mobilisfor Mercury Biotransformation.
abstract: Mercury (Hg) is one of the most toxic heavy metal and is extremely harmful for the environment. The permissible limit of mercury in industrial effluents is 0.001 ppm, whereas there are various sites having very high levels of mercury contamination. In the present study, 10 different mercury (Hg) resistant bacterial strains were isolated from Ulhas Estuary, Mumbai (Hg concentration of 107 ppm). All the strains were subsequently grown on higher concentration of mercuric chloride (HgCl2), one of the isolate (USP5) showed significant growth at high concentration of Hg (40 ppm) and 16SrRNAgene sequencing revealed the identity of the bacterium asMethylotenera mobilis, (Accession no. KT714144). Themeroperon was isolated and cloned inE.coliand checked for its ability to tolerate higher concentration of Hg. It has shown growth up to 70 ppm of Hg, also presence ofmerA gene indicated its ability to detoxify Hg into less toxic volatile form. The atomic absorption spectrophotometry confirmed the ability of clone to efficiently detoxify 60-90 % of the Hg (10-70 ppm) within 48-72 h. This clone can be used for effective volatilization of Hg from contaminated areas.
authors: Amity Institute of Microbial Biotechnology, Amity University, Sector-125, Noida, Uttar Pradesh 201303 India.
authors: Shalini
authors: S
authors: Porwal
authors: Amity Institute of Microbial Biotechnology, Amity University, Sector-125, Noida, Uttar Pradesh 201303 India.
authors: Rajni
authors: R
authors: Singh
keywords: Atomic absorption spectrophotometry; Mercury detoxification; merA