Bioremediation of Cadmium and Lead and it’s Effect on Chlorophyll, Enzymatic and Non Enzymatic Antioxidants of Cyanobacteria

Madhulika Gupta; Aditi Nag Chaudhuri

Volume : IV, Issue : VI, June - 2015

Bioremediation of Cadmium and Lead and it’s Effect on Chlorophyll, Enzymatic and Non Enzymatic Antioxidants of Cyanobacteria

Madhulika Gupta, Aditi Nag Chaudhuri

Abstract :

Cyanobacterial biomass has emerged as an alternative for developing economic and ecofriendly waste treatment process. Various concentrations of Cadmium (Cd+2 )and Lead (Pb +2 ) salts were prepared with a stock of 1gm/50ml. Effect of chlorophyll on heavy metals along with pH variation was studied. The cell morphology of metal treated Cyanobacteria was studied by Scanning Electron Microscope(SEM). It was observed that Cd+2 uptake increased from 10–100mg/l and that of Pb+2 upto 80mg/l. Effect of Cd +2 and Pb+2 on Cyanobacterial antioxidative enzymes such as superoxide dismutase, catalase and ascorbate peroxidase were studied. Superoxide dismutase (SOD) enzyme is first line of defense against antioxidative stress as it converts superoxide anion to peroxide which can be converted to water by catalase or peroxidase. On exposure to cadmium stress the phycobiliproteins, the non enzymatic antioxidants, seem to be most affected while in case of lead phycocyanin remained unaffected compared to allophycocyanin and phycoerythrin.