Insights into the Status of Heavy Metal
Resistant Rhizobacterial Communities
in the Heavy Metal Contaminated Sites
Karthikeyan KirupaSree, Vijay Karuppiah, Sathiamoorthi Thangavelu,
and Kavitha Thangavel
Abstract Anthropogenic activities viz. modern agricultural practices, industrialization and mining have long term detrimental effects on environment. All these
factors lead to the increase in heavy metal concentration in both hydrosphere and
lithosphere. The extreme use of chemical fertilizers in agricultural field possesses
a major threat to human and animal health and also causes various environmental
hazards. The utilization of the chemical fertilizers can be reduced through biological
aspects. Rhizosphere bacterial community is majorly involved in the plant growth
and colonized in root zones of the plants with enhanced symbiotic relationship with
plant community. These bacteria support the plant growth at normal and stressed
conditions. These naturally occurring bacteria will pave a way to minimize the use of
chemical fertilizers and hence in reducing the risk hazards. Plant-soil-root ecosystem
is an important interface between soil and plants and also plays a significant role in
the biosorption of heavy metals from contaminated soils. The rhizobacteria dwelling
in this soil are known to affect heavy metal mobility and availability to the growing
plant through the release of chelating agents, acidification, phosphate solubilization
and redox changes, therefore having tremendous potentials to enhance the bioremediation processes. Bioremoval strategies with appropriate heavy metal-adapted
rhizobacteria have received considerable importance. This chapter aims to reveal the
sources of heavy metals and its effects on various life forms with special emphasis
on PGPR assisted mechanisms for bioremoval of heavy metals from heavy metal
implicated sites in the environment.
Keywords Heavy metals · Chelating agents · Bioremoval · Plant growth
promoting rhizobacteria · Chemical fertilizers
K. KirupaSree · V. Karuppiah · S. Thangavelu · K. Thangavel (B)
Department of Microbiology, Science Campus, Alagappa University, Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu
630003, India
e-mail: kavithat@alagappauniversity.ac.in
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. Prashanthi et al. (eds.), Bioremediation and Green Technologies, Environmental
Science and Engineering, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64122-1_2
13
Resistant Rhizobacterial Communities
in the Heavy Metal Contaminated Sites
Karthikeyan KirupaSree, Vijay Karuppiah, Sathiamoorthi Thangavelu,
and Kavitha Thangavel
Abstract Anthropogenic activities viz. modern agricultural practices, industrialization and mining have long term detrimental effects on environment. All these
factors lead to the increase in heavy metal concentration in both hydrosphere and
lithosphere. The extreme use of chemical fertilizers in agricultural field possesses
a major threat to human and animal health and also causes various environmental
hazards. The utilization of the chemical fertilizers can be reduced through biological
aspects. Rhizosphere bacterial community is majorly involved in the plant growth
and colonized in root zones of the plants with enhanced symbiotic relationship with
plant community. These bacteria support the plant growth at normal and stressed
conditions. These naturally occurring bacteria will pave a way to minimize the use of
chemical fertilizers and hence in reducing the risk hazards. Plant-soil-root ecosystem
is an important interface between soil and plants and also plays a significant role in
the biosorption of heavy metals from contaminated soils. The rhizobacteria dwelling
in this soil are known to affect heavy metal mobility and availability to the growing
plant through the release of chelating agents, acidification, phosphate solubilization
and redox changes, therefore having tremendous potentials to enhance the bioremediation processes. Bioremoval strategies with appropriate heavy metal-adapted
rhizobacteria have received considerable importance. This chapter aims to reveal the
sources of heavy metals and its effects on various life forms with special emphasis
on PGPR assisted mechanisms for bioremoval of heavy metals from heavy metal
implicated sites in the environment.
Keywords Heavy metals · Chelating agents · Bioremoval · Plant growth
promoting rhizobacteria · Chemical fertilizers
K. KirupaSree · V. Karuppiah · S. Thangavelu · K. Thangavel (B)
Department of Microbiology, Science Campus, Alagappa University, Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu
630003, India
e-mail: kavithat@alagappauniversity.ac.in
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. Prashanthi et al. (eds.), Bioremediation and Green Technologies, Environmental
Science and Engineering, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64122-1_2
13