Role of extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) in toxicity response of soil bacteria Bacillus sp. S3 to multiple heavy metals

Heavy metal resistant bacteria are of great interest because of their potential use in bioremediation. Understanding the survival and adaptive strategies of these bacteria under heavy metal stress is important for better utilization of these bacteria in remediation. The objective of this study was to investigate the role of bacterial extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) in detoxifying against different heavy metals in Bacillus sp. S3, a new hyper antimony-oxidizing bacterium previously isolated from contaminated mine soils. The results showed that Bacillus sp. S3 is a multi-metal resistant bacterial strain, especially to Sb(III), Cu(II) and Cr(VI). Toxic Cd(II), Cr(VI) and Cu(II) could stimulate the secretion of EPS in Bacillus sp. S3, significantly enhancing the adsorption and detoxification capacity of heavy metals. Both Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and three-dimensional excitation–emission matrix (3D-EEM) analysis further confirmed that proteins were the main compounds of EPS for metal binding. In contrast, the EPS production was not induced under Sb(III) stress. Furthermore, the TEM–EDX micrograph showed that Bacillus sp. S3 strain preferentially transported the Sb(III) to the inside of the cell rather than adsorbed it on the extracellular surface, indicating intracellular detoxification rather than extracellular EPS precipitation played an important role in microbial resistance towards Sb(III). Together, our study suggests that the toxicity response of EPS to heavy metals is associated with difference in EPS properties, metal types and corresponding environmental conditions, which is likely to contribute to microbial-mediated remediation.