Water and soil pollution has become a major concern in the world, as much of the population relies on groundwater as its major source of drinking water as well as on soil as cultivable land. Heavy-metal contamination brings a potential health harzard that can cause metal toxicoses in animals and humans (Volesky and Holan, 1995). Trace elements such as cadmium, copper, and mercury are very toxic heavy metals and have been found in the human environment at increased concentrations, because a wide variety of industrial activities have accelerated the release of these metals at higher rates than natural geochemical cycling processes can tolerate (Nriagu and Pacyma, 1988).Automobile and leather factories, and sugar mills located in Tucumán, a northwestern state of Argentine, are potential sources of effluent contamination of aquifers and rivers. Salí is one of the most important rivers of Tucumán. The Salí River flows to the Río Hondo reservoir in northeast Argentina. This reservoir is a source of drinking water, irrigation and fishing activities, and is considered an important ecological reserve in Argentina.The metal processing capacity of microorganisms can be used to concentrate, remove and recover metals from aqueous streams and enhance the efficiency of wastewater treatment processes (Brown and Lester, 1979). Different microorganisms such as fungi, yeast and bacteria were tested for the availability and biosorption potential to bind heavy metals (Volesky and Holan, 1995). However, to our knowledge little information is available about the use of actinomycetes for sequestering heavy metals from solutions (Abbas and Edward, 1989).This study deals with metal-resistant actinomycetes from polluted areas in the Salí River. From the isolates, selected strains were characterized with respect to growth in the presence of different metal ion concentrations (MICs), with the ultimate objective of utilizing these strains in bioremediation processes. Materials and MethodsSamples. Sediment samples were collected from the flow of the Salí River in the Río Hondo reservoir using a sediment grab sampler. All of the samples were kept at 0°C until use. The samples were diluted with a sterile 145 mM NaCl solution and spread onto isolation plates in duplicate.Isolation of microorganisms. The isolation and enumeration of microorganisms were carried out in SC medium that contained (per liter): starch 10 g; casein 1.0 g; K 2 HPO 4 0.5 g; and agar 15.0 g. The pH of the medium was adjusted to 7.0 prior to sterilization. The medium was supplemented with 10.0 µg ml Ϫ1 each of nalidixic acid (NA) and cycloheximide and 25 µg ml Ϫ1 of nystatin. Plates were incubated at 25°C
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