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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, November 2001, p. 5335-5338, Vol. 67, No. 11
0099-2240/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/AEM.67.11.5335-5338.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Genetic Engineering of Escherichia coli for Enhanced Uptake and Bioaccumulation of Mercury

Weon Bae,1,2 Rajesh K. Mehra,2 Ashok Mulchandani,1,* and Wilfred Chen1,*

Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering1 and Environmental Toxicology Program,2 University of California, Riverside, California 92521

Received 25 April 2001/Accepted 6 September 2001

Synthetic phytochelatins (ECs) are a new class of metal-binding peptides with a repetitive metal-binding motif, (Glu-Cys)nGly, which were shown to bind heavy metals more effectively than metallothioneins. However, the limited uptake across the cell membrane is often the rate-limiting factor for the intracellular bioaccumulation of heavy metals by genetically engineered organisms expressing these metal-binding peptides. In this paper, two potential solutions were investigated to overcome this uptake limitation either by coexpressing an Hg2+ transport system with (Glu-Cys)20Gly (EC20) or by directly expressing EC20 on the cell surface. Both approaches were equally effective in increasing the bioaccumulation of Hg2+. Since the available transport systems are presently limited to only a few heavy metals, our results suggest that bioaccumulation by bacterial sorbents with surface-expressed metal-binding peptides may be useful as a universal strategy for the cleanup of heavy metal contamination.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521. Phone: (909) 787-2473. Fax: (909) 787-2425. E-mail: wilfred{at}engr.ucr.edu.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, November 2001, p. 5335-5338, Vol. 67, No. 11
0099-2240/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/AEM.67.11.5335-5338.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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Copyright © 2001 by the American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.