Assessment of multi-metal resistant bacteria from Periyar river, Southern India

Abstract

A total of thirty bacterial strains were isolated from the water and sediment samples of Periyar River during premonsoon 2015 for multi-metal resistant study. In this study, the bacterial isolates were challenged against three different concentrations (10, 100 and 200 mM) of copper and chromium metal salt solution by using of plate diffusion method. Most of the isolates from Periyar River were resistant to minimum concentration of the both metal solutions. Nearly, 93.3 % were resistant to copper solution whereas 90.0 % were resistant to chromium solution. In 200 mM of Cu, 46.7 % of the populations showed growth rates between 71-80%, whereas 3.3 % of the populations were observed with a 51-60 % growth rate. At 200 mM Cr, 6.7 % of the populations showed 51-60 % growth rate. A growth rate between 61-70 % was observed for 13.3 % of the bacterial populations at 200 mM of Cr, whereas no population was growing at a growth rate of 0 50 % with 200 mM of Cr. The results indicated that the river received various pollution sources throughout the river-line. The sensitivity nature of the bacterial isolates against metal solutions were varied depend on the concentrations of the metal solutions. Hence, the river needed throughout impoundment for maintaining sanitation.