Abstract
The Rozália Mine, with its long mining history, could represent an environmental threat connected with metal contamination and associated antibiotic tolerance. Metal and antibiotic tolerance profiles of heterotrophic, cultivable bacteria isolated from the Rozália Gold Mine in Hodruša-Hámre, Slovakia, and the surrounding area were analysed. Subsurface samples were collected from different mine levels or an ore storage dump. As expected, heterotrophic cultivable bacteria showed high minimum inhibitory concentrations for metals (up to 1000mg/l for zinc and nickel, 2000mg/l for lead and 500mg/l for copper). Surprisingly, very high minimum inhibitory concentrations of selected antibiotics were observed, e.g. > 10,000μg/ml for ampicillin, up to 4800μg/ml for kanamycin, 800μg/ml for chloramphenicol and 50μg/ml for tetracycline. Correlation analysis revealed a linkage between increased tolerance to the antibiotics ampicillin and chloramphenicol and metal tolerance to nickel and copper. A correlation was also observed between tetracycline-kanamycin tolerance and zinc-lead tolerance. Our data indicate that high levels of antibiotic tolerance occur in deep subsurface microbiota, which is probably connected with the increased level of metal concentrations in the mine environment.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
