Ground water arsenic contamination is a widespread problem in many developing countries including
Bangladesh and India. In recent years development of modern innovative technologies for the removal of
arsenic from aqueous system has become an interesting topic for research. In this present study, two rod
shaped Gram-positive bacteria are being reported, isolated from arsenic affected ground water of
Purbasthali block of Burdwan, West Bengal, India, which can tolerate arsenate concentration up to
4500 ppm and 550 ppm of arsenite concentration. From biochemical analysis and 16S rRNA sequencing,
they were identified as Bacillus sp. and Aneurinibacillus aneurinilyticus respectively. The isolates SW2 and
SW4 can remove 51.45% and 51.99% of arsenite and 53.29% and 50.37% of arsenate, respectively from
arsenic containing culture media. Both of the isolate can oxidize arsenite to less toxic arsenate. These two
arsenic resistant bacteria can be used as a novel pathway for the bioremediation of arsenic.
ã 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license