Probiotic biosorption as a way to remove heavy metal in seawater

Industrial and feedlot water waste that contain large amounts of heavy metals can be harmful for Taiwan’s aquaculture. This problem can be solved in an environmentally-friendly way by biosorption, which is using biological materials to absorb heavy metals. In this research, we aimed to reduce the food safety issues introduced by heavy metal contamination through the use of probiotics in food-producing aquafarms. Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG) and Bifidobacterium longum (BL) were added into seawater to determine if they have an ability to uptake heavy metal ions in a natural environment. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was used to detect the ion concentrations of arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), and mercury (Hg) before and after biosorption. Both living and dead LGG showed a great biosorption capacity towards Hg and Cd, indicating that probiotics of LGG are a potential resource for efficient biosorption. Dead BL also showed a great biosorption capacity towards Cd and Hg, but much lower than living and dead LGG. Thus, the results of our experiment support the idea of using probiotics to solve heavy metal pollution issues in aquafarms in Taiwan.