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PRINT ISSN : 2319-7692
Online ISSN : 2319-7706 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcmas@gmail.com / submit@ijcmas.com Editor-in-chief: Dr.M.Prakash Index Copernicus ICV 2018: 95.39 NAAS RATING 2020: 5.38 |
The toxicity and bioaccumulation tendency of heavy metals in the environment is a serious threat to the health of living organisms. Unlike organic contaminants, heavy metals cannot be broken down by chemical or biological processes. Hence, they can only be transformed into less toxic species. The present study was conducted to isolate promising heavy metal tolerant bacteria from various industrial polluted areas of Hyderabad, India and was tested for their plant growth promoting characteristics. Eleven strains isolated were identified as Bacillus (6) and Rhizobium (5) species and were tested for their maximum tolerance to heavy metals (Ni, Cd, Co, Pb) by supplementing its respective salts in different concentrations (0, 25, 50, 100, 150 and 200 mg/l) to Nutrient agar and Yeast extract mannitol agar. Among all strains AfSB-1, SfSB-5, AfSR-1 andSfSR-4 were able to tolerate upto 100 mg/l concentration. All the isolates were also screened for various biochemical traits like, Mineral solubilisation (P, K, Zn), HCN production, IAA production, Siderophore production, EPS production ACC deaminase activity. The best strains with both metal tolerance and multifunctional traits will enrich the studies on genetic diversity and could be exploited for bioremediation of heavy metal polluted environment.