Isolation, Characterisation and Detection of Plasmids from Chromium and Copper Resistant Bacterial Strains of Textile Effluents

M. N. Abubacker¹* and B. Kirthiga²

¹Department of Biotechnology, National College, Tiruchirappalli - 620 001. India.

²Department of Microbiology, D.G. Vaishnav Evening College, Chennai - 600 106. India.

ABSTRACT: Chromium resistant Bacillus subtilis NCBT-012, 013 strains and copper resistant Pseudomonas fluorescens NCBT-036, 037, 038 indicator bacterial strains were isolated from textile effluents and characterised. These indicator bacterial strains have shown multiple metal as well as antibiotic resistance characters. FTIR spectroscopic analysis of unpolluted control and the strains isolated from textile effluent B. subtilis and P. fluorescens revealed alteration in the absorption frequencies of main functional carbonyl, carboxyl, amino and hydroxyl groups between them. The effluent bacterial strains B. subtilis (NCBT-012) carried a plasmid DNA having a molecular weight of 14.86 kb and P. fluorescens (NCBT-036) showed a plasmid DNA with molecular weight of 23 kb suggesting that the plasmid genes detected is responsible for chromium and copper resistant characters of these bacterial strains. Further these isolates can be exploited for safe biodegradation of textile effluents.

KEYWORDS: Bacillus subtilis (NCBT 012; 013);l Pseudomonas fluorescens (NCBT-036; 037; 038); FTIR analysis

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