Acute toxicity of Hg⁰ and Hg²⁺ ions to Escherichia coli
1993
Jardim, Wilson F. | Gimenez, Sonia M.N. | Canela, Maria C. | Moraes, Sandra G.
Acute toxicity tests using mercuric ions (Hg²⁺) at the concentration of 10 and 50 μg L⁻¹ were carried out using Escherichia coli as the organism test. Toxicity was evaluated by measuring the inhibition in the microbial respiration, at 37°C, within 60 min after the metal spike. It has been shown that mercuric ions are reduced to the much less toxic form of elemental mercury (Hg⁰) by the glucose, which is usually present in the microbial culture medium as a carbon source. Based on this evidence, inhibition in the microbial respiration caused by the presence of 5,000 μg L⁻¹ of Hg⁰ were predicted to be similar to the effect caused by 10 μ L⁻¹ of Hg²⁺ ions. This hypothesis has been proved to be true under the experimental conditions used in the bioassays.
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