Ability of Shewanella oneidensis for the remediation of Heavy metals from urban road dusts

Heavy metals present in urban road dusts are hazardous to human health as well as environment. Although there are many reports of such pollution, remediation process for urban road dusts has not been studied. In the present study, road dusts were collected from different parts of Shanghai, China and were analyzed for the presence of heavy metals. A novel concept of microbially induced calcite precipitation (MICP) was employed in the remediation process. Shewanella oneidensis VA6 a river isolate, with multiple metal resistant abilities, was identified based on 16S rDNA sequencing and used in this study. This bacterium remediated more than 90% of six different heavy metals (Zn, Cr, Pb, Cu, Cd, and Co) from urban road dusts. Further the efficiency of MICP was analyzed by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), which plays a role for various biomineralization products such as calcite, aragonite, vaterite and gwihabaite in the process of remediation. This is the first extensive study where remediation of heavy metals from road dusts was studied.