An Engineered Yeast Expressing an Artificial Heavy Metal-Binding Protein Enhances the Phytoremediation of Alum Mine Soils
Alum mining leads to significant heavy metal and acid pollution within soils. Phytoremediation is a common strategy used to treat alum mine soils, but its efficiency is frequently compromised by the alum-mining-induced impairment of plant growth. To improve the strength of plants against mine pollut...
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MDPI AG
2025-03-01
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| author | Wenming Wang Liling Xie Lin Zhao Qilin Yu |
| author_facet | Wenming Wang Liling Xie Lin Zhao Qilin Yu |
| author_sort | Wenming Wang |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Alum mining leads to significant heavy metal and acid pollution within soils. Phytoremediation is a common strategy used to treat alum mine soils, but its efficiency is frequently compromised by the alum-mining-induced impairment of plant growth. To improve the strength of plants against mine pollution, this study constructed the artificial yeast strain ScHB (heavy metal-binding protein-containing <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i>) expressing the de novo designed protein HBGFP (heavy metal-binding green fluorescence protein) and investigated its effect on the phytoremediation of alum mine soils with soil physiochemical assays and heavy metal quantification. This protein was composed of an N-terminal signal peptide, an HB (heavy metal-binding) domain, and a GFP (green fluorescence protein) domain, as well as a C-terminal glycolphosphatidylinositol-anchoring fragment. The exposure of the HBGFP on the ScHB surface increased the growth rate of the yeast cells and enhanced cadmium capture from the cadmium-containing medium. After culturing <i>Medicago sativa</i> in the alum mine soils for 30 days, ScHB remarkably increased the plants’ average height from 17.5 cm to 27.9 cm and their biomass from 3.03 g/plant to 4.35 g/plant, as well as increasing the accumulation of antioxidant agents in the plants. Moreover, the ScHB cells strongly improved the soil quality, with an increase in the soil pH values from 5.47 to 6.21 to 6.9, and increased the levels of soil organic matter, total nitrogen, available phosphorus, and living bacteria. Furthermore, ScHB efficiently improved the plants’ abilities to remove soil heavy metals, decreasing the levels of cadmium, lead, chromium, and copper by 90%, 86%, 97%, and 88%, respectively. This study developed a genetic engineering method to improve the efficiency of phytoremediation against pollution from alum mining. |
| format | Article |
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| institution | Kabale University |
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| publishDate | 2025-03-01 |
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| series | Microorganisms |
| spelling | doaj-art-6e27174b46564500a9ca683d1dcde37a2025-08-20T03:43:20ZengMDPI AGMicroorganisms2076-26072025-03-0113361210.3390/microorganisms13030612An Engineered Yeast Expressing an Artificial Heavy Metal-Binding Protein Enhances the Phytoremediation of Alum Mine SoilsWenming Wang0Liling Xie1Lin Zhao2Qilin Yu3School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, ChinaNational Key Laboratory of Intelligent Tracking and Forecasting for Infectious Diseases, College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, ChinaSchool of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, ChinaNational Key Laboratory of Intelligent Tracking and Forecasting for Infectious Diseases, College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, ChinaAlum mining leads to significant heavy metal and acid pollution within soils. Phytoremediation is a common strategy used to treat alum mine soils, but its efficiency is frequently compromised by the alum-mining-induced impairment of plant growth. To improve the strength of plants against mine pollution, this study constructed the artificial yeast strain ScHB (heavy metal-binding protein-containing <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i>) expressing the de novo designed protein HBGFP (heavy metal-binding green fluorescence protein) and investigated its effect on the phytoremediation of alum mine soils with soil physiochemical assays and heavy metal quantification. This protein was composed of an N-terminal signal peptide, an HB (heavy metal-binding) domain, and a GFP (green fluorescence protein) domain, as well as a C-terminal glycolphosphatidylinositol-anchoring fragment. The exposure of the HBGFP on the ScHB surface increased the growth rate of the yeast cells and enhanced cadmium capture from the cadmium-containing medium. After culturing <i>Medicago sativa</i> in the alum mine soils for 30 days, ScHB remarkably increased the plants’ average height from 17.5 cm to 27.9 cm and their biomass from 3.03 g/plant to 4.35 g/plant, as well as increasing the accumulation of antioxidant agents in the plants. Moreover, the ScHB cells strongly improved the soil quality, with an increase in the soil pH values from 5.47 to 6.21 to 6.9, and increased the levels of soil organic matter, total nitrogen, available phosphorus, and living bacteria. Furthermore, ScHB efficiently improved the plants’ abilities to remove soil heavy metals, decreasing the levels of cadmium, lead, chromium, and copper by 90%, 86%, 97%, and 88%, respectively. This study developed a genetic engineering method to improve the efficiency of phytoremediation against pollution from alum mining.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2607/13/3/612heavy metal-binding proteinalum mine soilartificial yeastcadmium capturesoil quality |
| spellingShingle | Wenming Wang Liling Xie Lin Zhao Qilin Yu An Engineered Yeast Expressing an Artificial Heavy Metal-Binding Protein Enhances the Phytoremediation of Alum Mine Soils Microorganisms heavy metal-binding protein alum mine soil artificial yeast cadmium capture soil quality |
| title | An Engineered Yeast Expressing an Artificial Heavy Metal-Binding Protein Enhances the Phytoremediation of Alum Mine Soils |
| title_full | An Engineered Yeast Expressing an Artificial Heavy Metal-Binding Protein Enhances the Phytoremediation of Alum Mine Soils |
| title_fullStr | An Engineered Yeast Expressing an Artificial Heavy Metal-Binding Protein Enhances the Phytoremediation of Alum Mine Soils |
| title_full_unstemmed | An Engineered Yeast Expressing an Artificial Heavy Metal-Binding Protein Enhances the Phytoremediation of Alum Mine Soils |
| title_short | An Engineered Yeast Expressing an Artificial Heavy Metal-Binding Protein Enhances the Phytoremediation of Alum Mine Soils |
| title_sort | engineered yeast expressing an artificial heavy metal binding protein enhances the phytoremediation of alum mine soils |
| topic | heavy metal-binding protein alum mine soil artificial yeast cadmium capture soil quality |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2607/13/3/612 |
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