A Gateway to Metal Resistance: Bacterial Response to Heavy Metal Toxicity in the Biological Environment

Abstract

Heavy metals and metalloids are dangerous because they have the tendency to bioaccumulate in biological organisms over a period of time. However, it is conceived that a number of phytochemical agents as well microorganism can act as heavy metal removing agent both from human beings and the environment surrounding. For instance, microbes are used for the removal of heavy metals from the water bodies including bacteria, fungi, algae and yeast. This review shows that bacteria can play an important role in understanding the uptake and potential removal behaviour of heavy metal ions. The bacteria are chosen based on their resistance to heavy metals (incl. their toxicities) and capacity of adsorbing them. Due to specifi c resistance transfer factors, cell impermeability is drastically inhibited by several ion (i.e. mercury, cadmium, cobalt, copper, arsenic) forms. Between these elements, free-ion cadmium and copper concentrations in the biological medium provide more accurate determination of metal concentrations that affect the bacteria, than with most of the other existing media. Metal toxicity is usually assessed by using appropriate metal ion chelators and adjusting pH factor. Bacteria and metals in the ecosystem can form synergistic or antagonistic relationships, supplying each other with nutrients or energy sources, or producing toxins to reduce growth and competition for limiting nutritional elements. Thus, this relation may present a more sustainable approach for the restoration of contaminated sources. Review Article A Gateway to Metal Resistance: Bacterial Response to Heavy Metal Toxicity in the Biological Environment Loai Aljerf1* and Nuha AlMasri2 1Department of Basic Sciences, Faculty of Dental Medicine, Damascus University, Mazzeh Highway, Almazzeh, Damascus, Syria 2Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Syrian Private University, Damascus, Syria *Address for Correspondence: Loai Aljerf, Department of Basic Sciences, Faculty of Dental Medicine, Damascus University, Mazzeh Highway, Almazzeh, Damascus, Syria, Tel: +963-93 34 46 993; Email: envirochrom@hotmail.com; loai.aljerf@aol.com Submitted: 21 June 2018 Approved: 01 September 2018 Published: 03 September 2018 Copyright: ©2018 Aljerf L, et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.