Alkaline cyanide biodegradation
by Pseudomonas pseudoalcaligenes
CECT5344
Luque-Almagro
VM, Blasco R, Huertas MJ, Martínez-
Luque M, Moreno-Vivián C, Castillo F &
Roldán MD
Departamento de Bioquímica y Biología
Molecular
Universidad de Córdoba, Spain
Cyanide is produced by bacteria, algae, fungi and plants.
However, anthropogenic activities, such as mining
and electroplating industry, are the main source
of cyanide. The jewellery industry of Córdoba,
Spain, produces an alkaline residue containing
20 g·1-1 of free cyanide and
high amounts of cyanide-metal complexes, thus
making this effluent poisonous. Cyanide is toxic
for organisms because it produces stable complexes
with metals essential for protein function. Organisms
that are able to use it as nitrogen source and
bioremediation techniques are attractive alternatives
to chemical methods for removing cyanide from
industrialeffluents. A cyanotrophic microorganism
must have a cyanide resistance mechanism, a system
for iron uptake, and a cyanide assimilation pathway.
Pseudomonas pseudoalcaligenes CECT5344,
a strain isolated from the Guadalquivir river
(Córdoba), uses several nitrogen sources including
cyanide, cyanate, -cyanoalanine, cyanacetamide
and nitroferricyanide under alkaline conditions,
which prevents volatile HCN (pKa 9.2) formation.
This bacterium also grows with the heavy metal
cyanide containing waste water generated by the
jewellery industry. CECT5344 is a cyanide-resistant
strain which induces an alternative oxidase and
a siderophore-based mechanism for iron acquisition
in the presence of cyanide. For these reasons,
the strain CECT 5344 is a good candidate to be
used in cyanide bioremediation.
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