Toxic effects of chromium(VI) on anaerobic and aerobic growth of Shewanella oneidensis MR-1.

Cr(VI) was added to early- and mid-log-phase Shewanella oneidensis (S. oneidensis) MR-1 cultures to study the physiological state-dependent toxicity of Cr(VI). Cr(VI) reduction and culture growth were measured during and after Cr(VI) reduction. Inhibition of growth was observed when Cr(VI) was added to cultures of MR-1 growing aerobically or anaerobically with fumarate as the terminal electron acceptor. Under anaerobic conditions, there was immediate cessation of growth upon addition of Cr(VI) in early- and mid-log-phase cultures. However, once Cr(VI) was reduced below detection limits (0.002 mM), the cultures resumed growth with normal cell yield values observed. In contrast to anaerobic MR-1 cultures, addition of Cr(VI) to aerobically growing cultures resulted in a gradual decrease of the growth rate. In addition, under aerobic conditions, lower cell yields were also observed with Cr(VI)-treated cultures when compared to cultures that were not exposed to Cr(VI). Differences in response to Cr(VI) between aerobically and anaerobically growing cultures indicate that Cr(VI) toxicity in MR-1 is dependent on the physiological growth condition of the culture. Cr(VI) reduction has been previously studied in Shewanella spp., and it has been proposed that Shewanella spp. may be used in Cr(VI) bioremediation systems. Studies of Shewanella spp. provide valuable information on the microbial physiology of dissimilatory metal reducing bacteria; however, our study indicates that S. oneidensis MR-1 is highly susceptible to growth inhibition by Cr(VI) toxicity, even at low concentrations [0.015 mM Cr(VI)].