Burkholderia sp. cadmium tolerance mechanism and its influence in phytoremediation

Author(s)

Manuella Nóbrega Dourado Ribeiro

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Piracicaba.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALA/BC)
• Defense date: 2013-11-22

Examining board members

Ricardo Antunes de Azevedo; João Lucio de Azevedo; Paula Fabiane Martins; Claudia Barros Monteiro Vitorello

• Advisor: Ricardo Antunes de Azevedo

Abstract

Soils have been contaminated with cadmium (Cd) by the use of fertilizers, calcareous, pesticides and industrial and/or domestic effluents. It can be leached to groundwater, as well as be taken up by plants potentially leading to reduce growth and yield. It causes different damages to the cell, generating oxidative stress which is responsible for its toxicity, affecting all living organism. A balance in the redox state of the cell to maintain cellular integrity and metabolism is essential for organism tolerance. Thus, the antioxidant response of bacteria exposed to Cd was studied to understand the tolerance mechanism, and be able to develop a methodology to bioremediate contaminated soils. MDA and hydrogen peroxide contents and different enzymes activity of antioxidant system (SOD, CAT, GR and GST) of two strains from Burkholderia genus, one from a soil contaminated with Cd in high concentrations (strain SCMS54) and the other from soil without Cd (strain SNMS32) in two exposure time (5 and 12 h), were analyzed. Stress measurement (MDA and hydrogen peroxide content) and antioxidant enzyme activities (SOD, CAT, GR and GST) increased in almost all treatments in the presence of Cd. These results also indicate that strain SCMS54 (isolated from Cd contaminated soil) presents a higher metabolic diversity and plasticity due the expression of more isoforms of the enzymes SOD, CAT and GR. The strain also accumulates 50% more Cd. We also analyzed the response to Ni of these two strain, observing a similar response to Cd, except for GST enzyme expression, which in strain SCMS54 this enzyme was induced in the presence of Ni, indicating that this enzyme can be essential on Ni tolerance. After that, the strain isolated from Cd contaminated soil (SCMS54) was selected to proceed the studies to evaluate the benefits of tolerant microorganism-tomato plant interaction. The use of plants to remove heavy metals from contaminated soilhas less impact and a lower cost. Soil microorganisms can be able to solubilize or mobilize soil metals acting also as bioremediator. Besides the high tolerance to Cd, the strain SCMS54 can produce indole-acetic acid (IAA), solubilize inorganic phosphate and produce siderophore, revealing its potential in plantmicroorganism mutual and beneficial interaction. When interacting with tomato plants exposed to Cd, this bacterium led to decrease in plant peroxide concentration and chlorosis levels, promoted relative plant growth and reduced the root absorption of Cd resulting in an increase in plant tolerance to this highly toxic heavy metal. Indicating that inoculation of tomato plants with Burkholderia sp. SCMS54 promotes better growth when cultivated in the presence of Cd by a mechanism that appears to decrease Cd concentration in roots as a result of a bacterial-plant root beneficial interaction. (AU)