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Extracellular polysaccharides production by bacteria as a mechanism of mercury tolerance
Descriptive
TitleInfo
Title
Extracellular polysaccharides production by bacteria as a mechanism of mercury tolerance
Name
(type = personal)
NamePart
(type = family)
Cruz
NamePart
(type = given)
Kimberly Anne
NamePart
(type = date)
1986-
DisplayForm
Kimberly Anne Cruz
Role
RoleTerm
(authority = RULIB)
author
Name
(type = personal)
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(type = family)
Barkay
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Tamar
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Tamar Barkay
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
Role
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chair
Name
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Reuhl
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Kenneth
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Kenneth Reuhl
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
Role
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internal member
Name
(type = personal)
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(type = family)
Buckley
NamePart
(type = given)
Brian
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Brian Buckley
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
Role
RoleTerm
(authority = RULIB)
internal member
Name
(type = personal)
NamePart
(type = family)
Cooper
NamePart
(type = given)
Keith
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Keith Cooper
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
Role
RoleTerm
(authority = RULIB)
internal member
Name
(type = personal)
NamePart
(type = family)
Vetriani
NamePart
(type = given)
Costa
DisplayForm
Costa Vetriani
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
Role
RoleTerm
(authority = RULIB)
outside member
Name
(type = corporate)
NamePart
Rutgers University
Role
RoleTerm
(authority = RULIB)
degree grantor
Name
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NamePart
Graduate School - New Brunswick
Role
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school
TypeOfResource
Text
Genre
(authority = marcgt)
theses
OriginInfo
DateCreated
(qualifier = exact)
2014
DateOther
(qualifier = exact);
(type = degree)
2014-10
CopyrightDate
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2014
Place
PlaceTerm
(type = code)
xx
Language
LanguageTerm
(authority = ISO639-2b);
(type = code)
eng
Abstract
(type = abstract)
Bacteria have adapted mechanisms of mercury (Hg) tolerance to survive in environments containing elevated Hg concentrations. The potential of extracellular polysaccharides (EPS) production by bacteria as a mechanism of Hg tolerance has not been previously investigated. The objective of my dissertation was to determine if EPS produced by bacteria sorb Hg as a tolerance mechanism. Purified EPS with different chemical compositions isolated from bacterial pure cultures from microbial mats in French Polynesian atolls were assessed for Hg sorption by filtering Hg and EPS solutions after equilibration via shaking and measuring free vs. bound Hg. The data showed that EPS sorbed up to 82% of Hg from solution, that this sorption was dependent on EPS composition, and the sorption was a saturable mechanism. Hg uptake capacities ranged from 1.0 to 91.2 mg Hg/g for the different EPS. To determine if EPS production could alter Hg tolerance in bacteria during growth, an E. coli K-12 strain and its EPS defective mutant were obtained. A disc inhibition assay was performed demonstrating Hg inhibited growth in a dose-dependent manner. The wild-type was more tolerant to Hg with zones of inhibition ranging from 1.4 to 6.1 mm compared to 2.5 to 7.15 mm for the mutant. Assessment of EPS production between the 2 strains by the phenol- sulfuric acid assay for sugar determination normalized to protein content of bacterial pellet showed the wild-type produced 2 times more EPS than the mutant. Finally, EPS production and Hg tolerance were examined in bacteria isolated from an environment with naturally elevated Hg concentrations. Eight obligate and facultative chemolithoautrophic bacteria tolerant to 10 µM HgCl2 were isolated from the East Pacific Rise at 9ºN. Two of the isolates were selected for further characterization. Purge and trap experiments revealed that neither isolate reduced Hg2+ to Hg0 suggesting that the mer operon is not used for mercury tolerance. The phenol-sulfuric acid assay for sugar determination normalized to protein content of bacterial pellets of 3 facultative chemolithoautotrophs revealed that all 3 isolates produced EPS ranging from 0.5 to 38 µg EPS/mg protein. For 2 of strains, there was 8% and 32% increase in EPS production during growth in the presence of Hg, suggesting that EPS may be involved in tolerance. Together these data suggest EPS production is a potential mechanism of mercury tolerance in bacteria.
Subject
(authority = RUETD)
Topic
Toxicology
Subject
(authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Mercury--Absorption and Adsorption
Subject
(authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Mercury--Toxicology
Subject
(authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Microbial polysaccharides
RelatedItem
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TitleInfo
Title
Rutgers University Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier
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ETD
Identifier
ETD_5809
PhysicalDescription
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electronic resource
InternetMediaType
application/pdf
InternetMediaType
text/xml
Extent
1 online resource (x, 98 p. : ill.)
Note
(type = degree)
Ph.D.
Note
(type = bibliography)
Includes bibliographical references
Note
(type = statement of responsibility)
by Kimberly Anne Cruz
RelatedItem
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TitleInfo
Title
Graduate School - New Brunswick Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier
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rucore19991600001
Location
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(displayLabel = Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey)
NjNbRU
Identifier
(type = doi)
doi:10.7282/T34X568M
Genre
(authority = ExL-Esploro)
ETD doctoral
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Rights
RightsDeclaration
(ID = rulibRdec0006)
The author owns the copyright to this work.
RightsHolder
(type = personal)
Name
FamilyName
Cruz
GivenName
Kimberly
MiddleName
Anne
Role
Copyright Holder
RightsEvent
Type
Permission or license
DateTime
(encoding = w3cdtf);
(qualifier = exact);
(point = start)
2014-09-04 11:09:51
AssociatedEntity
Name
Kimberly Cruz
Role
Copyright holder
Affiliation
Rutgers University. Graduate School - New Brunswick
AssociatedObject
Type
License
Name
Author Agreement License
Detail
I hereby grant to the Rutgers University Libraries and to my school the non-exclusive right to archive, reproduce and distribute my thesis or dissertation, in whole or in part, and/or my abstract, in whole or in part, in and from an electronic format, subject to the release date subsequently stipulated in this submittal form and approved by my school. I represent and stipulate that the thesis or dissertation and its abstract are my original work, that they do not infringe or violate any rights of others, and that I make these grants as the sole owner of the rights to my thesis or dissertation and its abstract. I represent that I have obtained written permissions, when necessary, from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis or dissertation and will supply copies of such upon request by my school. I acknowledge that RU ETD and my school will not distribute my thesis or dissertation or its abstract if, in their reasonable judgment, they believe all such rights have not been secured. I acknowledge that I retain ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use all or part of this thesis or dissertation in future works, such as articles or books.
Copyright
Status
Copyright protected
Availability
Status
Open
Reason
Permission or license
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Technical
RULTechMD
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ContentModel
ETD
OperatingSystem
(VERSION = 5.1)
windows xp
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