Co-resistance of Antibiotics and Heavy metals in Bacterial Strains Isolated from Agriculture Farm and Soap Industry

Rimsha Dilshad, Rida Batool*

Abstract

In this study, a relationship between antibiotic and heavy metal resistance was estimated among culturable bacterial strains of agriculture farm and soap industry soil. A total of 27 bacterial strains were isolated and screened for their antibiotic and heavy metal resistance by supplementing LB agar medium with variable concentrations of respective stress. On LB-agar medium, agriculture farm soil harboured more cultivable bacterial strains (17 bacterial strains) as compared to the soap industry soil (10 bacterial strains). A minimum inhibitory concentration of antibiotics for bacterial strains ranged from 20μg/ml to 000μg/ml while MIC of heavy metals had a range of 20μg/ml-2000μg/ml for Nickel, Copper, and Mercury whereas the minimum inhibitory concentration of lead and chromium was up to 10,000μg/ml and 250,000μg/ml respectively. A high rate of co-resistance for Streptomycin with Lead and copper and Ampicillin with lead was observed in 90% of industrial soil bacterial strains. In conclusion, multiple antibiotic resistance and antibioticheavy metal co-resistance in bacteria strains could be due to contamination of soil with any sort of heavy metals or the diversity of population inhabiting that particular site. Antibiotic resistance can also be attributed to the horizontal gene transfer in bacteria.