Abstract
Mercury (Hg) pollution in water has been a problem for the ecosystem and human health, thus eco-friendly remediation methods are gaining traction around the world. In this study, a bacterial strain designated as RS3 isolated from the Red Sea (Saudi Arabia) has shown tolerance to more than 250 mg/L of Hg2+ on minimum inhibitory studies. The isolate RS3 was identified as Marinomonas sp., (Accession No: OK271312) using 16s rRNA sequencing. Tracing the growth curve for the RS3 showed that maximum growth attained at 72 h and only 10% reduction than the control medium for 50 mg/L HgCl2 supplemented seawater medium, which continued to reduce as 21% to 60 with the increment of HgCl2 from 100 to 350 mg/L. The Hg2+ removal potential of R53 is observed to be 78% at 50 mg/L HgCl2/72 h, which is significantly altered with the addition of carbon source such as glucose (84.5%) > fructose (79.8%) > control (78%) > citrate (73.4%) > acetate (60.2%) > maltose (54.7%). Box-Behnken design (BBD) well proposed a model with R-2 value of 0.8922, which predict a utmost Hg2+ removal of 89.5% by RS2 at favorable conditions (pH-7; NaCl% and glucose 5%) at 72 h. Mercuric reductase enzyme encoded merA gene expression was found to be high in RS3 isolates cultivated in 100 mg/L of HgCl2 in comparison with other variables. Thus the seawater isolate Marinomonas sp. RS3 expressed a significant tolerance and removal potential towards the Hg2+, which would make it is a noteworthy applicant for effective mercury remediation practices.