Abstract

A patented microbial systems process was conducted on microbial-mediated biodegradative mechanisms at a coal-pile run off basin discharged from the coal fired plant at Savannah River Site, Aiken, South Carolina (SC). One of the isolated strains, ATCC 55673, grew robustly on number of dissolved toxic metals. Genome-centric evaluation revealed the isolate to belong to the genus Bacillus with close affiliation to B. cereus, an aggressive polychlorinated biphenyl-degrader. At a coverage of 90x, the genome of strain ATCC 55673 consisted of 4,615,850 bases with a total number of 4,590 putative genes assembling into 51 contigs with an N50 contig length of 2,597,36 bases. Several gene homologues coding for resistance to heavy metals were identified, such as a suite of outer membrane efflux pump proteins like nickel/cobalt transporter regulators, peptide/nickel transport substrate and ATP-binding proteins, permease proteins, a high-affinity nickel-transport protein, and several genes for metabolism of aromatic compounds (Table 1).

Keywords: Biomineralization of uranium and heavy metals, organic waste; Metal resistance genes; Whole genome sequencing (WGS); Bacillus sp. (ATCC 55673)