Inducible Periplasmic Chromate Reducing Activity in Pseudomonas aeruginosa Isolated from a Leather Tannery Effluent

Inducible Periplasmic Chromate Reducing Activity in Pseudomonas aeruginosa Isolated from a Leather Tannery Effluent

A Chromate tolerant strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated from the effluent of a tannery showed significant enzymatic activity of chromate reduction. Cells grown in chromate-supplemented medium reduced 8 $\mu\textrm{g}$ chromate/mg protein/h in the presence of NADH/NADPH. The chromate reducing activity was inducible as cells pregrown in chromate showed higher chromate reduction. In contrast, the periplasmic fraction of cells gown in chromate reduce $75\%$ chromate in 4 h and the spheroplast fraction failed to do so, indicating that chromate reductase may be located in the periplasm. The presence of a 30 kDa protein in the periplasmic extracts of cells grown in the presence of chromate, but its absence of the protein in cells grown without chromate, points out a possible role of this protein in chromate reduction.