Modulation of cadmium bioaccumulation and enhancing cadmium tolerance in Pichia kudriavzevii by sodium chloride preincubation.

Application of growing microorganisms for cadmium removal is limited by the sensitivity of living cells to cadmium. The effects of sodium chloride (NaCl) preincubation on the cadmium bioaccumulation and tolerance of Pichia kudriavzevii and Saccharomyces cerevisiae were investigated in this study. NaCl preincubation significantly reduced the intracellular and cell-surface cadmium bioaccumulation of P. kudriavzevii at both 6 and 20 mg L(-1) cadmium, while no obvious effect was observed in S. cerevisiae except that the intracellular cadmium bioaccumulation at 20 mg L(-1) cadmium was reduced obviously by 20-60 g L(-1)  NaCl. For both yeasts, the improved contents of protein and proline after NaCl preincubation contributed to the cadmium tolerance. The thiol contents in P. kudriavzevii under cadmium stress were alleviated by NaCl preincubation, which might be due to the decrease of intracellular cadmium bioaccumulation. NaCl preincubation enhanced the contents of glycerol and trehalose in P. kudriavzevii under cadmium stress, while no acceleration was observed in S. cerevisiae. The results suggested that NaCl preincubation could be applied in cadmium removal by growing P. kudriavzevii to increase the cadmium tolerance of the yeast.