Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

HORIZONTAL TRANSFER OF HEAVY METAL RESISTANCE IN VITRO AND IN SIMULATED NATURAL CONDITIONS

Nihar J. Mehta and Varsha K. Vaidya

Abstract

The role of gene transfer leading to change in the ecology of the microbial communities and its application in bioremediation is an intriguing issue. The present investigation dealt with horizontal gene transfer in heavy metal resistant bacteria viz. Citrobacter freundii, Escherichia coli, Enterobacter aerogenes and Bacillus globisporus isolated from polluted environments. All the isolates exhibited plasmid mediated resistance to chromium, cadmium mercury. The isolates also showed the ability to horizontally transfer the resistance to metals in multitude of environments via both conjugation as well as transformation.