Use Pseudomonas bacteria as fertilizer

Scientists working at Michigan Technological University, USA, found Pseudomonas capable of removing copper, increasing soil fertility in the soils (formerly copper mines) that were being contaminated. severe infection, helping plants grow and develop strongly.

Artwork of Pseudomonas bacteria.

When the miners left the copper mine in Michigan, USA, they left a lot of red metal (copper metal), scattered everywhere, polluting the land. Waste from mining activities contains so much residue of copper, so toxic that almost no crop can survive, this consequence lasts for decades, leaving the inert ground landscape. Bare spread across many fields straight to the wing.

However, this situation can be overcome by the research team led by Ramakrishna Wusirika, professor of biological sciences, working at Michigan University of Technology, USA: how to plant grow in desert waste of copper mine and how to remove some of the copper metal that is absorbing in the soil.

Professor Wusirika, began his research using several Pseudomonas bacteria samples from sediment layers at Lake Torch. In the heyday of the copper mining area, Lake Torch was used as a waste dump of the mine. ' We have found Pseudomonas to be resistant to copper at high concentrations, ' Wusirika said. ' We think we can use them to help plants grow better on copper contaminated soils. '

Therefore, the research team of Professor Wusirika added copper to soil samples and then injected Pseudomonas bacteria resistant to copper metal. After that, the research team planted corn and sunflower seeds and waited.

As expected, seeds grown in uninfected soil will thrive, and seeds grown in copper-contaminated soil without Pseudomonas will be stunted. But the seeds grown in high-concentration copper but have been enriched with Pseudomonas grow much better, some plants are almost as normal as the ones grown in unpolluted areas. Contamination of toxic copper metal.

' It seems that the Pseudomonas bacteria have a great support for the development of plants, and they also absorb copper to help corn and sunflower plants grow well ,' Wusirika said. This means that some naturally occurring bacteria can make soil more fertile, and in the process of supporting plants, these bacteria have removed at least one significant amount of copper. , in a process called rhizoremediation .

In this study, in addition to Professor Wusirika, there is also the contribution of co-author Kefeng Li Fellows.

The results of this study were published online in Hazardous Materials , issued March 1, 2011.

The researchers' next project is to experiment in a real waste desert of copper mines. They are in the process of using Pseudomonas bacteria to promote plant growth in the typical sand collected near the small village on the Upper Peninsula, where the byproducts of copper processing are covering an area of ​​about 500 acres.