Heavy Metal Remediation System
AssigneeInter American University of Puerto Rico
InventorOscar N. Ruiz
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Abstract
The invention provides a system of heavy metal sequestration by bacteria. The bacteria expresses the ppk, mt, and/or β-galactosidase (lacZ) genes and can tolerate at least 25 μM mercury, 1,000 μM zinc, 250 μM cadmium, and 3,000 μM Pb. The system allows for facile determination of the presence of heavy metal contaminants in a liquid and the facile collection of the bacteria that has sequestered large amounts of heavy metal. Further provided is a system of gene expression in bacteria that comprises phage and plastid gene expression elements and delivers a particularly high level of protein expression and heavy metal resistance.
Claims20
A bacterium comprising at least one transgenic chelator agent from among β-galactosidase and ppk, which transgenic chelator agent is not a fusion protein and which transgenic chelator agent is engineered for expression from a promoter and at least one from among a 5′-UTR and a 3′-UTR, whereby the chelator agent renders the bacterium resistant to mercury concentrations above 20 μM up to about 80 μM, cadmium concentrations above about 20 μM up to about 250 μM, zinc concentrations above about 20 μM up to about 1000 μM, or lead concentrations above about 20 μM up to about 3,000 μM.
A kit for detection of heavy metal contamination comprising:
- a container for fluids,
- a bacterial culture expressing β-galactosidase, ppk, or mt, and
- an indicator strip showing increasingly dark coloring corresponding to the coloring of the bacterial culture expressing β-galactosidase, ppk, or mt when grown in the presence of increasing concentrations of the heavy metals.
A bacterium comprising a transgenic mt chelator agent,
- which transgenic chelator agent is not a fusion protein and which transgenic chelator agent is engineered for expression from a promoter and at least one from among a 5′-UTR and a 3′-UTR, whereby the chelator agent renders the bacterium resistant to mercury above 20 μM up to about 140 μM, cadmium concentrations above about 20 μM up to about 250 μM, zinc concentrations above about 20 μM up to about 1000 μM, or lead concentrations above about 20 μM up to about 3,000 μM, and
- the transgenic chelator agent is not fusion protein.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.