BIOREMEDIATION OF LEAD CONTAMINATED WATER : AN ASSESSMENT OF REMEDIATION POTENTIAL OF ISOLATED BACTERIAL STRAINS FROM GOMTI RIVER.

Bioremediation as a bioprocess has great potential to reduce the toxicity of heavy metals such as lead (Pb) from contaminated sites. In this study, the Pb-bioremediation potential of bacteria was evaluated by strain improvement and by preparing different Consortium. To improve the Pb-bioremediation efficiency, the one factor at a time was used to optimize the process factors responsible such as pH, temperature and initial Pb concentration. Among the studied bacteria, mixture culture (containing both strains) was more able to remove Pb than a single culture. Our result found that the most resistant bacterial strain against lead were S1C3 (1) and S4C7 (2). Among these, S1C3 exhibited the highest resistance to lead. Solubilisation of lead in water sample was observed through the consortium of these two bacteria. The 5 consortium were prepared viz. Wild (1+2), UV (1+2), EtBr (1+2), W (1) +UV(2), W (2)+UV (1). These prepared consortia were inoculated in lead medium. After examination through the atomic absorption, it was found that consortium of UV treated bacteria showed maximum removal tendency among the other consortium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]