Safe bioremediation of chromium by Pseudomonas isolated from industrial waste water and detection of genes responsible for its degradation

Isolation of microorganisms capable of reducing toxic chromium (VI) into less toxic chromium (III) has been given attention due to their significance in bioremediation of the contaminated sites. Five isolates out of the twelve isolates were selected according to their abilities to grow in the presence of high concentration of chromium. From the five bacterial isolates, isolates FAYP2 and FAYP3 were selected according to their higher reduction percent of toxic chromium (VI) into chromium (III) and their reduction percent was 60% and 70% respectively. The isolates FAYP2 and FAYP3 were identified as Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Pseudomonas zhadogens, respectively, based on morphological and biochemical characterization and confirmed by molecular sequence analyses of amplified 16S rRNA genes with accession numbers OMO10239 and OMO019074. The results reveal that P. aeruginosa FAYP2 and P. zhadogens FAYP3 can be used for the bioremediation of wastewater effluent containing hexavalent chromium.