Examination of Impact of Arsenic Stress on Soil Microbes

Abstract

The research was performed at Botany department, Nusrat Jahan College Rabwah Pakistan to screen stress tolerance level of soil microbes (pseudomonas and penicillium) taken from NARC (National Agricultural Research Centre) Pakistan against different levels of sodium arsenite stress (1 mg/L to 10 mg/L). The research was based on completely randomized design. Three drops were applied to microbes grown on CLED (cysteine-, lactose-, and electrolyte-deficient) media to determine zone of inhibition through disk, well and spread method, while control group was without sodium arsenite application. After application of various levels of arsenic stress organisms were incubated for 24 h at 37°C. After incubation, zones of inhibition were measured. Our study has shown that both micobes cannot overcome higher levels of arsenic stress because in higher stress petriplates, increased inhibitory zones were observed.