Adsorption of Hg2+/Cr6+ by metal-binding proteins heterologously expressed in Escherichia coli

Abstract Background Removal of heavy metals from water and soil is a pressing challenge in environmental engineering, and biosorption by microorganisms is considered as one of the most cost-effective methods. In this study, the metal-binding proteins MerR and ChrB derived from Cupriavidus metallidurans were separately expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 to construct adsorption strains. To improve the adsorption performance, surface display and codon optimization were carried out. Results In this study, we constructed 24 adsorption engineering strains for Hg 2+ and Cr 6+ , utilizing different strategies. Among these engineering strains, the M’-002 and B-008 had the strongest heavy metal ion absorption ability. The M’-002 used the flexible linker and INPN to display the merR opt at the surface of the E. coli BL21, whose maximal adsorption capacity reached 658.40 μmol/g cell dry weight under concentrations of 300 μM Hg 2+ . And the B-008 overexpressed the chrB in the intracellular, its maximal capacity was 46.84 μmol/g cell dry weight under concentrations 500 μM Cr 6+ . While in the case of mixed ions solution (including Pb 2+ , Cd 2+ , Cr 6+ and Hg 2+ ), the total amount of ions adsorbed by M’-002 and B-008 showed an increase of up to 1.14- and 4.09-folds, compared to the capacities in the single ion solution. Conclusion The construction and optimization of heavy metal adsorption strains were carried out in this work. A comparison of the adsorption behavior between single bacteria and mixed bacteria systems was investigated in both a single ion and a mixed ion environment. The Hg 2+ absorption capacity is reached the highest reported to date with the engineered strain M’-002, which displayed the merR opt at the surface of chassis cell, indicating the strain’s potential for its application in practical environments.