TY - JOUR

T1 - Immobilization of Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 in diffusive gradients in thin films for determining metal bioavailability

AU - Baker, Paul

AU - Hogstrand, Christer

AU - Lead, Jamie

AU - Pickup, Roger W.

AU - Zhang, Hao

PY - 2015/11

Y1 - 2015/11

N2 - Assessing metal bioavailability in soil is important in modeling the effects of metal toxicity on the surrounding ecosystem. Current methods based on diffusive gradient thin films (DGTs) and Gel-Integrated Microelectrode are limited in their availability and sensitivity. To address this, Shewanella oneidensis, an anaerobic iron reducing bacterium, was incorporated into a thin layer of agarose to replace the polyacrylamide gel that is normally present in DGT to form biologically mobilizing DGT (BMDGT). Viability analysis revealed that 16–35% of the cells remained viable within the BMDGTs depending on the culturing conditions over a 20 h period with/without metals. Deployment of BMDGTs in standardized metal solutions showed significant differences to cell-free BMDGTs when cells grown in Luria Broth (LB) were incorporated into BMDGTs and deployed under anaerobic conditions. Deployment of these BMDGTs in hematite revealed no significant differences between BMDGTs and BMDGTs containing heat killed cells. Whether heat killed cells retain the ability to affect bioavailability is uncertain. This is the first study to investigate how a microorganism that was incorporated into a DGT device such as the metal reducing bacteria, S. oneidensis, may affect the mobility of metals.

AB - Assessing metal bioavailability in soil is important in modeling the effects of metal toxicity on the surrounding ecosystem. Current methods based on diffusive gradient thin films (DGTs) and Gel-Integrated Microelectrode are limited in their availability and sensitivity. To address this, Shewanella oneidensis, an anaerobic iron reducing bacterium, was incorporated into a thin layer of agarose to replace the polyacrylamide gel that is normally present in DGT to form biologically mobilizing DGT (BMDGT). Viability analysis revealed that 16–35% of the cells remained viable within the BMDGTs depending on the culturing conditions over a 20 h period with/without metals. Deployment of BMDGTs in standardized metal solutions showed significant differences to cell-free BMDGTs when cells grown in Luria Broth (LB) were incorporated into BMDGTs and deployed under anaerobic conditions. Deployment of these BMDGTs in hematite revealed no significant differences between BMDGTs and BMDGTs containing heat killed cells. Whether heat killed cells retain the ability to affect bioavailability is uncertain. This is the first study to investigate how a microorganism that was incorporated into a DGT device such as the metal reducing bacteria, S. oneidensis, may affect the mobility of metals.

U2 - 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2015.06.018

DO - 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2015.06.018

M3 - Article

VL - 138

SP - 309

EP - 315

JO - Chemosphere

JF - Chemosphere

SN - 0045-6535

ER -