ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Microbiotechnology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1646518
This article is part of the Research TopicMicrobial Remediation of Heavy Metal Pollution​View all 4 articles
Survival Tactics of Bacillus licheniformis KNP Under Hexavalent Chromium Stress: A Study of Detoxification and Chemotactic Responses
Provisionally accepted
Akansha Garg1
Mushtaq Ali1
Aiman Ahmad1
Prerna Chauhan1
Ashish Kumar2Rupali Mishra2Vimal Kumar Dubey3Alok Srivastava1Sanjay Kumar Garg1
Pankaj Kumar Arora1*- 1M. J. P. Rohilkhand University, Bareilly, India
- 2Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Lucknow, India
- 3Mahayogi Gorakhnath University Gorakhpur, Gorakhpur, India
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Hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] pollution is a serious environmental issue because it is highly toxic and persistent. The present research investigates the growth, Cr(VI) reducing capacity, and chemotaxis of Bacillus licheniformis strain KNP under stress of Cr(VI) in form of K2Cr2O7 (250-1000 ppm). Bacterial growth decreased with increases in Cr(VI) concentration, with a maximum at 250 ppm K2Cr2O7 and strong inhibition at 1000 ppm K2Cr2O7. Significantly, strain KNP completely reduced Cr(VI) in form of 500 ppm K2Cr2O7 after 48 hours. FTIR spectroscopy showed functional group changes related to Cr biosorption, and SEM and EDX analysis confirmed the accumulation of Cr on the surface of bacteria with morphological changes. Strain KNP also showed negative chemotaxis towards Cr(VI) and positive chemotaxis towards glucose as indicated by drop plate and chemical plug assays. Genomic analysis revealed major chemotaxis-related genes that play a role in Cr(VI) sensing and avoidance, indicating a complex survival strategy. These results indicate that B. licheniformis strain KNP is a good candidate for bioremediation purposes, providing an effective combination of Cr(VI) detoxification and tactical bacterial migration in polluted environments.
Keywords: Chemotaxis, detoxification, Chromium, heavy metal, Bacillus
Received: 13 Jun 2025; Accepted: 11 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Garg, Ali, Ahmad, Chauhan, Kumar, Mishra, Dubey, Srivastava, Garg and Arora. 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: Pankaj Kumar Arora, M. J. P. Rohilkhand University, Bareilly, India
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