Cultivation of hard-to-culture subsurface mercury-resistant bacteria and discovery of new merA gene sequences.

ABSTRACT: Mercury-resistant bacteria may be important players in mercury biogeochemistry. To assess the potential for mercury reduction by two subsurface microbial communities, resistant subpopulations and their merA genes were characterized by a combined molecular and cultivation-dependent approach. The cultivation method simulated natural conditions by using polycarbonate membranes as a growth support and a nonsterile soil slurry as a culture medium. Resistant bacteria were pregrown to microcolony-forming units (mCFU) before being plated on standard medium. Compared to direct plating, culturability was increased up to 2,800 times and numbers of mCFU were similar to the total number of mercury-resistant bacteria in the soils. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis analysis of DNA extracted from me

SUBMITTER: Rasmussen LD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2446565 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature