• Koshy P M
• A P Thomas
• Neena Suzzan Joshua

The occurrence of toxic heavy metals in the environment is geogenic or anthropogenic. In mitigating heavy metal polluted environments several treatment strategies and methods are available such as chemical precipitation, filtration, ion exchange, electrochemical treatment, membrane technologies, adsorption on activated carbon, evaporation, phytoremediation etc. This study involved isolation, identification and molecular characterization of heavy metal and drug resistant bacterial strains from the sediment samples of Vattakayal backwaters, near chavara industrial area. Morphological and biochemical tests were carried out for the identification of seven heavy metal tolerant bacterial isolates. Based on the analysis the isolates were identified as Bacillus cereus, Enterobacter aerogens, Pseudomonas putida, Bacillus licheniformis, Klebsiella pneumonia, Alcaligens faecalis, and Citrobacter kosari. Sequences were matched with previously published bacterial 16S rDNA sequence in the NCBI database using ADVACED BLAST. Antibiotic resistant study showed that 57.14% of the isolates were resistant to at least one antibiotic tested. Phylogenetic tree was constructed by using MEGA4 software and the evolutionary history was inferred by neighbour-joining method. It was found that the strain K1 classified in the branch of Bacillus cereus and K4 in the branch of Bacillus licheniformis.

Heavy metal, Bacillus cereus, Bacillus licheniformis, Minimal Inhibitory Concentration

"Isolation and Identification of heavy metal resistant bacterial strains from Chavara industrial area, Kollam (Dt) Kerala", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.2, Issue 7, page no.419-428, July-2015, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1701753.pdf

"Isolation and Identification of heavy metal resistant bacterial strains from Chavara industrial area, Kollam (Dt) Kerala", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.2, Issue 7, page no. pp419-428, July-2015, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1701753.pdf