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Isolation of an arsenate-respiring bacterium from a redox front in an arsenic-polluted aquifer in West Bengal, Bengal Basin

  • Thomas H. Osborne
    ,
  • John M. McArthur
    ,
  • Pradip K. Sikdar
    ,
  • Joanne M. Santini(corresponding author)
*Corresponding author for this work
  • University College London
    ,
  • Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management
Research Output:
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Abstract

Natural pollution of groundwater by arsenic adversely affects the health of tens of millions of people worldwide, with the deltaic aquifers of SE Asia being particularly polluted. The pollution is caused primarily by, or as a side reaction of, the microbial reduction of sedimentary Fe(III)-oxyhydroxides, but the organism(s) responsible for As release have not been isolated. Here we report the first isolation of a dissimilatory arsenate reducer from sediments of the Bengal Basin in West Bengal. The bacterium, here designated WB3, respires soluble arsenate and couples its reduction to the oxidation of acetate; WB3 is therefore implicated in the process of arsenic pollution of groundwater, which is largely by arsenite. The bacterium WB3 is also capable of reducing dissolved Fe(III) citrate, solid Fe(III)-oxyhydroxide, and elemental sulfur, using acetate as the electron donor. It is a member of the Desulfuromonas genus and possesses a dissimilatory arsenate reductase that was identified using degenerate polymerase chain reaction primers. The sediment from which WB3 was isolated was brown, Pleistocene sand at a depth of 35.2 m below ground level (mbgl). This level was some 3 cm below the boundary between the brown sands and overlying reduced, gray, Holocene aquifer sands. The color boundary is interpreted to be a reduction front that releases As for resorption downflow, yielding a high load of labile As sorbed to the sediment at a depth of 35.8 mbgl and concentrations of As in groundwater that reach >1000 μg/L.

Publication Information

Output type

Research Output:
Contribution to journal
Article
 Peer-review

Original language

English

Pages from-to (Number of pages)

Pages 4193-4199 (7 pages)

Journal (Volume, Issue Number)

Environmental Science and Technology (Volume 49, Issue 7)

Publication milestones

  • Published - 03/03/2015

Publication status

Published - 03/03/2015

ISSN

0013-936X

Publication IDs

  • handle.net: 10547/623435
  • Scopus: 84926483339
  • PubMed: 25734617

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