Repeated fed-batch operations for microbial detoxification of mercury using wild-type and recombinant mercury-resistant bacteria.

A wild-type mercury-resistant strain Pseudomonas aeruginosa PU21 (Rip64), and an Escherichia coli PWS1 strain genetically engineered to harbor mercury resistance were examined for their capacity to detoxify soluble mercuric ions with repeated fed-batch operations. The specific mercury detoxification activity for the two strains at different initial mercury concentrations was determined by resting-cell experiments. The fed-batch operations were conducted with different initial culture volumes (Vo), inoculum sizes (Xo), and different mercury feeding rates (FHg) to investigate the effects of those operation parameters on the performance of mercury detoxification. The results showed that the wild-type and the recombinant strains had an optimal specific activity of 5 x 10(-7) and 8 x 10(-8) micrograms cell-1 h-1, respectively. In fed-batch operation for P. aeruginosa PU21, under the conditions of Vo = 400 ml and Xo = 4.5-4.8 x 10(9) cells ml-1 the overall mercury detoxification efficiency (eta) for FHg = 16.9 mg Hg h-1 was 5.26 mg Hg l-1 h-1, nearly 35% higher than that for a lower FHg (11.7 mg Hg h-1). Among the three initial culture volumes examined in this study, the highest eta (5.60 mg Hg l-1 h-1) was obtained when Vo = 1200 ml and FHg = 16.9 mg Hg h-1. It was also found that an inoculum size higher than 4.0 x 10(9) cells ml-1 enabled a stable fed-batch operation, while as the inoculum was reduced to around 1.6 x 10(9) cells ml-1, the mercury feeding caused severe cell death, leading to an unsuccessful fed-batch operation. In the fed-batch operation for E. coli PWS1 strain with Vo = 1200 ml and FHg = 16.9 mg Hg h-1, the mercury detoxification efficiency was 3.07 mg Hg l-1 h-1, only 54% of that for the wild-type P. aeruginosa PU21 strain under the same operating conditions. It was also noticed that the operation with E. coli PWS1 became less efficient at the second fed-batch cycle due to plasmid instability of the recombinant strain.