Isolation of Mercuric Chloride-tolerant Microorganism and the Incorporation of Mercuric Chloride into the Cells of the Microorganism

Abstract

In order to recover mercuric compounds from contaminated soil or polluted water, some experiments were carried out to isolate mercuric chloride-tolerant microorganism and to investigate its ability in the incorporation of mercuric chloride into the cell.
A mercuric chloride-tolerant microorganism was isolated from the activated sludge of Meijyo waste water treatment plant in Nagoya. According to the Bergey's identification for microorganism, the microorganism was found to belong to the Aeromonas on the basis of taxonomic observation.
It was found that mercuric chloride was incorporated into both the precipitate and the supernatant fraction obtained by the centrifugation of the homogenate of the cells, at 26, 000×g for 15 min, and the ratio of the incorporation of mercuric chloride into the former to that of the latter was found to be 3:1.