The Trafficking of Hgii by Alleviating its Toxicity Via Citrobacter Sp. Iitism25 in Batch and Pilot Scale Investigation

The study aims to see how effective Citrobacter species strain are in removing Hg II under stressful conditions. For this, a response surface methodology was chosen to optimized pH, temperature and biomass for effective biotransformation of Hg II . The optimized value for pH, temperature and biomass were 6.5, 30°C and 2 mg/l with 89% Hg II removal potential. TEM-EDX showed accumulated mercury onto the bacterial surface. Pot study was conducted to check the potentiality of this strain in alleviating the toxicity in Solanum lycopersicum L. under different concentration of mercury. The enhancement in antioxidative enzymes as well as mercury accumulation was observed in test plant inoculated with IITISM25. Obtained result showed greater accumulation of mercury in root system than that of shoot system due to poor translocation. Moreover, mercury reductase enzyme synthesis was also boosted up by the addition of β-mercaptoethanol and cysteine. The optimized condition for maximum enzyme synthesis was at pH 7.5 and temperature 30°C with Km = 48.07 μmol and Vmax = 9.75 μmol/min. Thus, Citrobacter species strain IITISM25 can be effectively applied in remediation of Hg II stress condition as well as promotion of Solanum lycopersicum L growth under stress condition as a promising host