Isolation and characterization of endophytic bacterium LRE07 from cadmium hyperaccumulator Solanum nigrum L. and its potential for remediation

Valuable endophytic strains facilitating plants growth and detoxification of heavy metals are required because the application of plant–endophyte symbiotic system is a promising potential technique to improve efficiency of phytoremediation. In this study, endophytic bacterium LRE07 was isolated from cadmium hyperaccumulator Solanum nigrum L. It was identified as Serratia sp. by 16S rRNA sequence analysis. The endophytic bacterium LRE07 was resistant to the toxic effects of heavy metals, solubilized mineral phosphate, and produced indoleacetic acid and siderophore. The heavy metal detoxification was studied in growing LRE07 cells. The strain bound over 65% of cadmium and 35% of zinc in its growing cells from single metal solutions 72 h after inoculation. Besides the high removal efficiencies in single-ion system, an analogous removal phenomenon was also observed in multi-ions system, indicating that the endophyte possesses specific and remarkable heavy metal remediation abilities.