STUDIES ON GROWTH PATTERN OF CITROBACTER SP. ISOLATED FROM RIVER GANGA IN DIFFERENT HEAVY METAL AND ITS ASSOCIATION WITH MULTI-DRUG RESISTIVITY

Citrobacter sp. AR2 was isolated and multi- heavy metal resistivity with different heavy metals like arsenic, lead, cobalt, zinc, manganese and strontium was conducted. The organism showed highest growth in Zinc followed by Strontium, Manganese , Copper , Lead , Chromium , Arsenic and Cobalt. The growth pattern study revealed that the organism favoured Strontium , Copper and Lead for growth whereas the media containing other heavy metals showed slow and declined growth rate . The organism also showed its multidrug resistance character when plated with Ampicillin (50?g/ml), Tetracycline (10?g/ml), Chloramphenicol (34?g/ml), Kanamycin (50?g/ml), Penicillin G (80?g/ml) and Streptomycin (50?g/ml). Citobacter sp. AR2 was also tested against several commercially available antibiotic discs from which it was concluded that the organism is highly pathogenic and can resist almost all the antibiotics tested against.