Metallotolerants are

extremophile An extremophile () is an organism that is able to live (or in some cases thrive) in extreme environments, i.e., environments with conditions approaching or stretching the limits of what known life can adapt to, such as extreme temperature, press ...

organism An organism is any life, living thing that functions as an individual. Such a definition raises more problems than it solves, not least because the concept of an individual is also difficult. Many criteria, few of them widely accepted, have be ...

s that are able to survive in environments with a high concentration of dissolved heavy metals. They can be found in environments containing

arsenic Arsenic is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol As and atomic number 33. It is a metalloid and one of the pnictogens, and therefore shares many properties with its group 15 neighbors phosphorus and antimony. Arsenic is not ...

cadmium Cadmium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Cd and atomic number 48. This soft, silvery-white metal is chemically similar to the two other stable metals in group 12 element, group 12, zinc and mercury (element), mercury. Like z ...

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

, and

zinc Zinc is a chemical element; it has symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodic tabl ...

. Known metallotolerants include ''

Ferroplasma ''Ferroplasma'' is a genus of Archaea that belong to the family Ferroplasmaceae. Members of the ''Ferroplasma'' are typically acidophilic, pleomorphic, irregularly shaped cocci. The archaean family Ferroplasmaceae was first described in the earl ...

'' sp. and '' Cupriavidus metallidurans''. Metallotolerants adapt to their environment by reducing energy loss by excreting less. Many metallotolerant microbes utilise strategies to perform bioremediation, which is seen as a productive way of survival. ''

Sinorhizobium ''Ensifer'' (often referred to in literature by its synonym ''Sinorhizobium'') is a genus of nitrogen-fixing bacteria (rhizobia), three of which ('' Ensifer meliloti'', '' Ensifer medicae'' and '' Ensifer fredii'') have been sequenced. Etymology ...

sp. M14'' is a metallotolerant bacterium. Plants can also survive in highly metallic conditions. For example, ''

Noccaea caerulescens ''Noccaea caerulescens'' (previously ''Thlaspi caerulescens''), the alpine penny-cress or alpine pennygrass, is a flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae. It is found in Scandinavia and Europe. Description ''Noccaea caerulescens'' is a low bi ...

'' is a metallotolerent plant.

References

* {{microbiology-stub