Abstract
The emergence of multiple metal/antibiotic resistance among bacterial populations poses a potential threat to human health. Heavy metal and antibiotic resistance have been shown to have a strong correlation in nature, and their inter-relation is an important subject of study. The present study had an objective to isolate and identify multiple metal/antibiotic resistant bacteria from industrial wastewater of a Plastic Factory at Hafar Al Baten governorate, Saudi Arabia. Initially a total of 14 bacterial cultures (coded HAF – 1 to HAF – 14) were isolated on nutrient agar plates supplemented with different concentrations; 10, 15, 25, 25 and 30 mg/l of the five heavy metals; Hg2+, Pb2+, Cd2+, As5+ and Cr6+ respectively. Out of 14 isolates, 5 (35.71 %) isolates (HAF – 2, HAF – 6, HAF – 7, HAF – 9 & HAF – 13) were selected as a multiple heavy metal resistant (MHMR) organisms with maximum tolerable concentrations (MTCs); 75 – 100 mg/l for Hg2+, 125 – 175 mg/l for Pb2+, 200 mg/l for Cd2+ and 200 – 250 mg/l for Cr6+ and As5+. Antibiotic resistance pattern of the selected MHMR isolates was determined by Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method against 15 different antibiotics belonging to 10 classes. Out of 5 isolates, 4 (80 %) isolates were multiple antibiotic resistance (MAR) with varying degrees. Among them isolate, HAF – 13 showed a wide range of resistance to all tested antibiotics; Amikacin, Augmentin, Ceftazidime, Chloramphenicol, Ciprofloxacin, Clindamycin, Cotrimoxazole, Erythromycin, Gentamicin, Levofloxacin, Oxacillin, Tetracycline, Vancomycin and Penicillin Gexcept Imipenem. Strain HAF – 13 was selected for its multiple metal/antibiotic resistance and identified by morphological, physiological and biochemical characteristics in addition to the phylogenetic analysis of the nucleotide sequence of 16S rRNA gene, which indicated that this strain is belonged to the genus Acinetobacter with high similarity 98% to Acinetobacter baumannii (accession number KU310899.1) and designated Acinetobacter baumannii strain HAF – 13.
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