ACCUMULATION OF HEAVY METALS BY BACTERIA OF GENUS PSEUDOMONAS

The ability of four strains of bacteria of the genus Pseudomonas to accumulate copper, cadmium, zinc and lead from solution was investigated. It is shown that bacteria of the studied Pseudomonas strains remove from 7.4 to 64.5% of copper, 8.0 to 25.0% of cadmium, from 23.6 to 45.5% of zinc, from 51.1 to 83.8% of lead from the solution. The greatest ability to accumulate heavy metals is marked for bacteria of the strain Pseudomonas maltophilia ONU 329, which retrieve 64.5% of copper, 25.0% of cadmium, 45.5% of zinc, 83.8% of lead from the solution. They accumulate more copper, zinc and lead per gram of dry biomass than other strains. Bacterial cells accumulate lead better (from 140.0 to 182.4 mg/g of dry weight of biomass), and zinc worse (from 17.5 to 33.3 mg/g of dry weight biomass) than other metals