Calcite Solubilization by Bacteria: A Novel Method of Environment Pollution Control

Abstract

Global warming due to the emission of carbon dioxide (CO₂) gas, by the anthropogenic sources is a great threat to the environment. A part of this gas is absorbed by soil bacteria as well as aquatic bacteria and it is converted into insoluble calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) or calcite. Increased calcite concentration in water and agricultural land creates many problems to the human. In this investigation, an attempt has been made to carry out some experiments to isolate some bacteria from cow dung, which have both calcite solubilization and urease activities. Isolated bacteria solubilize calcite due to the secretion of citric acid, oxalic acid and sanazine pigment. All bacterial isolates were identified by 16S rRNA gene sequencing and the phylogenetic relationship among them was also studied using MEGA 6 software.

Keywords:

• calcite solubilization
• calcite-solubilizing bacteria
• CO₂ sequestration
• sanazine pigment
• MEGA 6.0 software

Acknowledgments

A part of this study is taken from the Ph.D. thesis work of Mr. Gopinath Rana of Vidyasagar University, West Bengal, India. The authors thank Mr. Manas Mondol for cowdung sampling and Mr. Somraj Dey, Mr. Aridam Adhikari and Mr. Sirsendu Bikash Maity for assistance in laboratory work.