Bioremediation of zinc by isolated bacterial strains

Heavy metals and other trace elements are important for proper functioning of biological system, but also their deficiency or excess could lead to a number of disorders. Zinc is essential metal for human health and plants growth. But in case of excess amount it can cause toxicity, as they change their form and become hazardous in the nature. In this study, the microbes like bacteria, yeast and fungi were isolated from soil for remediation of metals present in Gomti River. Among these three microbes only single colony of bacteria was observed where as no fungi and yeast growth was reported due to the toxicity of heavy metals. Two set of experiments were planned to check the efficiency of isolated bacterial. In the first set of experiment, zinc present in water collected from three different sources was degraded upto 93.7% by isolated bacteria. In the second set different concentration of zinc solutions (5, 10, 20, 30, 50, 70 mg/L) were prepared. The isolated bacteria was degrading zinc 80.8% of 5mg/l solution and 96.5% of 30mg/l solution after 72 hr incubation, which was showing gradual increase as the zinc concentration was increasing from 5mg/l upto 30 mg/l. The Isolated bacteria were efficiently degrading the zinc metal.