Summary
The isolation of silver-resistant, silver-accumulating bacteria is reported. Following the screening of a number of environmental sources, silver-resistant Enterobacteriaceae were isolated from both sewage and photographic processing effluent. The level of resistance to silver and other heavy metals was determined for a selection of these isolates and, together with preliminary accumulation data derived from batch culture studies, one isolate, a strain of Citrobacter intermedius, was selected for further examination. The effect of silver concentration on batch culture growth of this organism was also investigated.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aickin DM, Dean ACR (1977) Lead accumulation by microorganisms. Microbios Lett 5:129–133
Albright LJ, Wentworth JW, Wilson EM (1972) Techniques for measuring metallic salt effects upon the indigenous heterotrophic microflora of natural waters. Water Res 6:1589–1596
Austin B, Allen DA, Mills AL, Colwell RR (1977) Numerical taxonomy of heavy metal-tolerant bacteria isolated from an estuary. Can J Microbiol 23:1433–1447
Baldry MGC, Hogarth DS, Dean ACR (1977) Chromium and copper sensitivity and tolerance in Klebsiella (Aerobacter) aerogenes. Microbios Lett 4:7–16
Belly RT, Kydd GC (1982) Silver resistance in microorganisms. Dev Ind Microbiol 23:567–577
Brignac PJ, Mo C (1975) Formation constants and metal-toligand ratios for tris (hydroxymethyl) aminomethane-metal complexes. Anal Chem 47:1465–1466
Brown MJ, Lester JN (1979) Metal removal in activated sludge: the role of bacterial extracellular polymer. Water Res 13:817–837
Bryson V, Szybalski W (1952) Microbial selection. Science 116:45–48
Buchanan RE, Gibbons NE (1974) Bergey's manual of determinative bacteriology, 8th edn. Williams and Wilkins, Baltimore
Bult A (1982) Silver, sulfadiazine and related antibacterial metal-sulfanilamides: fact of fancy. Pharmacy Int 3:400–405
Charley RC, Bull AT (1979) Bioaccumulation of silver by a multispecies community of bacteria. Arch Microbiol 123:239–244
Cowan ST, Steel KH (1974) Manual for the identification of medical bacteria 2nd edn. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Coward JE, Rosenkranz HS (1975) Electron microscopic appearance of silver sulfadiazine treated Enterobacter cloacae. Chemotherapy 21:231–235
Dunn GM, Bull AT (1983) Bioaccumulation of copper by a defined community of activated sludge bacteria. Eur J Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 17:30–34
Farmer JJ (1981) The genus Citrobacter. In: Starr MP, Stolp H, Trüper HG, Balows A, Schlegel HG (eds) The prokaryotes, 1st edn. Springer Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, pp 1140–1147
Goddard PA, Bull AT (1989) Accumulation of silver by growing and non-growing populations of Citrobacter intermedius B6. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 31:314–319
Haefeli C, Franklin C, Hardy K (1984) Plasmid determined silver resistance in Pseudomonas stutzeri isolated from a silver mine. J Bacteriol 158:389–392
Hendry AT, Stewart IO (1979) Silver-resistant Enterobacteriaceae from hospital patients. Can J Microbiol 25:915–921
Horitsu H, Kato H (1980) Comparisons of characteristics of cadmium tolerant bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa G-1 and its cadmium-sensitive mutant strain. Agric Biol Chem 44:777–782
Horitsu H, Nishida H, Kato H, Tomoyeda M (1978) Isolation of potassium chromate-tolerant bacterium and chromate uptake by the bacterium. Agric Biol Chem 42:2037–2043
Hutchins SR, Davidson MS, Brierley JA, Brierley CL (1986) Microorganisms in reclamation of metals. Ann Rev Microbiol 40:311–336
Klein DA, Sokol RA (1976) Evaluation of ecological effects of silver iodide seeding agents. In: Steinhoff HW, Ives JD (eds) Ecological impacts of snowpack augmentation in the San Juan mountains, Colorado. San Juan ecology project final report, Colorado State University, pp 125–138
Macaskie LE, Dean ACR (1982) Cadmium accumulation by microorganisms. Environ Technol Lett 3:49–56
McHugh GL, Moellering RC, Hopkins CC, Swartz MN (1975) Salmonella typhimurium resistant to silver nitrate, chloramphenicol and ampicillin. Lancet 1:235–240
Patrick FM, Loutit MW (1978) Passage of metals to freshwater fish from their food. Water Res 12:395–398
Pickett AW, Dean ACR (1976) Cadmium and zinc sensitivity and tolerance in Klebsiella (Aerobacter) aerogenes. Microbios 15:79–91
Rainnie DJ, Bragg PD (1973) Effect of iron deficiency on respiration and energy-coupling in Escherichia coli. J Gen Microbiol 77:339–349
Schreurs WJA, Rosenberg H (1982) Effect of silver ions on transport and retention of phosphate by Escherichia coli. J Bacteriol 152:7–13
Shumate SE, Strandberg GW (1985) Accumulation of metals by microbial cells. In: Robinson CW, Howell JA (eds) Comprehensive biotechnology, vol. 4. Pergamon Press, Oxford, pp 235–247
Smith R, Wiechers SG (1981) Elimination of toxic metals from wastewater by an integrated wastewater treatment/water reclamation system. Water S A (Pretoria) 7:65–70
Summers AO, Jacoby GA, Swartz MN, McHugh G, Sutton L (1978) Metal cation and oxyamon resistances in plasmids of Gram-negative bacteria. In: Schlessinger D (ed) Microbiology 1978. American Society for Microbiology, Washington, pp 128–131
Tilton RC, Rosenberg B (1978) Reversal of the silver inhibition of microorganisms by agar. Appl Environ Microbiol 35:1116–1120
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Goddard, P.A., Bull, A.T. The isolation and characterisation of bacteria capable of accumulating silver. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 31, 308–313 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00258415
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00258415