Microorganisms for remediation of cadmium-contaminated soils

An alternative to the cleaning-up of agricultural soil contaminated by heavy metals is to avoid their transfer from soil to plant by inoculating soil with selected microorganisms able to biosorb heavy metals. Here, four bacteria species and a fungus isolated from contaminated soils revealed their ability to grow in the presence of high cadmium level. We tested their growth capacity related to pH and Cd concentration on synthetic and soil extract media. The comparison of their growth rate, the biosorbed cadmium rate and the specific biosorption allowed to select the most efficient microorganism to be used in bioremediation.