Abstract

METAL TOLERANCE POTENTIAL OF BACTERIAL ISOLATES FROM COW RUMEN LIQUOR

Anukam U.S.*, Ndu-Osuoji I., Onwusonye J.C., Ugwuegbu A.O., Azubike C. and Joel O.M.

Abstract

The heavy metal (Nickel chloride, lead acetate and copper chloride) potential of Bacterial isolated from cow rumen liquor was studied. The isolation of the bacterial organisms was done using spread plate technique which yielded a Bacillus specie while the metal tolerance potential of the isolated organism was achieved using a spectrophotometer which dictated the optical density of the bacterial isolate in the presence of the test metals. Their were varying level of optical density which ranged from 0.519-0.670 at varying concentration of the bacterial isolateat 6.25mg/l level of concentration of the test sample the lowest level of optical density was observed in the tube containing Nickel chloride, followed by lead acetate and copper chloride. Nickel chloride showed low optical density at concentration 12.5mg/l.25mg/l, 50mg/l and 100mg/l when compared to lead acetate and copper chloride, hence copper chloride was found to have the highest optical density at all levels of concentration. More so, the findings from this study revealed that Nickel chloride was most scavenged by the bacterial isolates followed by lead acetate and then copper chloride in a decreasing concentration manner. Thus, the bacterial isolates are metal resistant and could be employed in detoxification of metal polluted environment.

Keywords: Nickel chloride, lead acetate and copper chloride.