Uptake of zinc and copper by halophilic bacteria isolated from the Dead Sea shore, Jordan.

Ten Gram-positive and gram-negative bacterial cultures were recovered from nine water, mud, and soil samples collected from the Dead Sea shore at Suwaymah. All bacterial cultures were able to grow at 10% NaCl and at 45 degrees C. They were able to grow in nutrient media supplemented with 1250 ppm of Zn. Most of them, except cultures 2 and 8, were able to grow in nutrient medium supplemented with 1000 ppm of Cu. After 2 wk of incubation of these 10 cultures at different concentrations (5, 25, 100, and 500 ppm), stock solutions of both Zn and Cu elements, the maximum absorption using atomic absorption spectrometry for Zn was achieved by culture 7 at 11.2%, 1.0%, 38.4%, and 84.54%, respectively, from the previous stock solutions, whereas the maximum absorption of the same concentration of Cu was achieved by culture 3 at 6.2%, 55.56%, 85.66%, and 90.82%, respectively, of the different concentrations. After 3 wk of incubation, the estimated absorption for Zn was achieved by cultures 2, 9, and 10 at 19.2%, 16.68%, 42.92%, and 76.5%, 18.2%, 21.56%, 32.22%, and 77.43%, and 20.8%, 23.52%, 32.22%, and 82.84% of the previous stocks. The maximum absorption of the same concentration of Cu was achieved by culture 3 at 32.6%, 49.88%, 90.44%, and 91.86%, respectively. The accumulation of the absorbed metals was found to be maximum in the protoplast of all cultures. The accumulation at the cell wall was maximum for cultures 2 and 6 for Zn and Cu, respectively, and between the cell wall and the plasma membrane, it was maximum for cultures 2 and 8 for Zn and Cu, respectively.