Bacillus megaterium HgT21: a Promising Metal Multiresistant Plant Growth-Promoting Bacteria for Soil Biorestoration
Jesús Guzmán-Moreno, Luis Fernando García-Ortega, Lilia Torres-Saucedo, Paulina Rivas-Noriega, Rosa María Ramírez-Santoyo, Lenin Sánchez-Calderón, Iliana Noemí Quiroz-Serrano, Luz Elena Vidales-Rodríguez
Abstract
Metal-polluted environments are natural sources of a wide variety of PGPB adapted to cope with toxic metal concentrations. In this work, the bacterial strain Bacillus megaterium HgT21 was isolated from metal-contaminated soil and is proposed as a model for the study of metal multiresistance in spore-forming Gram-positive bacteria due to the presence of a variety of metal resistance-associated genes similar to those encountered in the metal multiresistant Gram-negative Cupriavidus metallidurans CH34. The ability of B. megaterium HgT21 to promote the growth of plants also makes it suitable for the study of plant-bacteria interactions in metal-polluted environments, which is key for the development of techniques for the biorestoration of metal-contaminated soils used for agriculture.