ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Environ. Sci.
Sec. Toxicology, Pollution and the Environment
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2025.1633959
This article is part of the Research TopicModeling for Environmental Pollution and Change, Volume IIView all articles
Biotranslocation of lead and cadmium in Spinacia oleracea amended with Klebsiella sp. VITLLJ4: An effective microbe (EM) technology based phyto-rhizoremediation studies
Provisionally accepted
- Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, India
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Pollution caused by heavy metals (HMs) pose a significant threat to environmental and agricultural sustainability. The current study is emphasized on the isolation and characterization of lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) resistant bacteria from lake soil sediment. Among all the six isolates obtained, VITLLJ4 was capable of tolerating Cd and Pb upto 600 ppm and 1200 ppm respectively. It also exhibited strong biofilm formation under metal stress with specific biofilm formation (SBF) values ranging between 0.32 - 1.06 for Pb and 0.38 - 0.91 for Cd, facilitating the sequestration of metals. Growth profiling of VITLLJ4 showed steady exponential growth under metal stress and response surface methodology (RSM) confirmed the optimization of pH, carbon source and nitrogen source for efficient bioremoval of cadmium and lead. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed the presence of pleomorphism in cells upon exposure to HMs. Furthermore, VITLLJ4 exhibited plant growth promoting rhizobacterial (PGPR) traits revealing its ability to produce IAA, siderophore and ammonia, the isolate was also capable of solubilizing insoluble phosphate. Pilot scale study on pot culture, showed increase in the phenotypic characters of Spinacea oleracea augmented with VITLLJ4 (rhizoremediation), as compared to that of untreated plants (phytoremediation). The bioaccumulation of Pb and Cd was found to be higher in the roots than that of the shoots of S. oleracea confirming the plant to be a root accumulator. The maximum removal efficiency of Pb and Cd was found to be higher in rhizoremediation treatments i.e. 80% and 75%, as compared to that of phytoremediation i.e. 59% and 50% upon supplementation of 150 ppm of Cd and Pb. These findings highlighted that microbe assisted phytoremediation as an effective strategy in the bioremoval of Pb and Cd from polluted sites.
Keywords: heavy metals, Phytoremediation, Rhizoremediation, Biofilm, PGPR, Em technology
Received: 23 May 2025; Accepted: 02 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Deo, Osborne and Benjamin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Jabez W Osborne, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, India
Lincy Kirubhadharsini Benjamin, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, India
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