RESEARCH ARTICLE Increased copper bioremediation ability of new transgenic and adapted Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains Polina Geva 1,2 & Rotem Kahta 1,2 & Faina Nakonechny 1 & Stella Aronov 2 & Marina Nisnevitch 1 Received: 24 March 2016 /Accepted: 28 June 2016 /Published online: 8 July 2016 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016 Abstract Environmental pollution with heavy metals is a very serious ecological problem, which can be solved by bioremediation of metal ions by microorganisms. Yeast cells, especially Saccharomyces cerevisiae, are known to exhibit a good natural ability to remove heavy metal ions from an aqueous phase. In the present work, an attempt was made to increase the copper-binding properties of S. cerevisiae. For this purpose, new strains of S. cerevisiae were pro- duced by construction and integration of recombinant human MT2 and GFP-hMT2 genes into yeast cells. The ySA4001 strain expressed GFP-hMT2p under the consti- tutive pADH1 promoter and the ySA4002 and ySA4003 strains expressed hMT2 and GFP-hMT2 under the induc- ible pCUP1 promoter. An additional yMNWTA01 strain was obtained by adaptation of the BY4743 wild type S. cerevisiae strain to high copper concentrations. The yMNWTA01, ySA4002, and ySA4003 strains exhibited an enhanced ability for copper ion bioremediation. Keywords Bioremediation . Human metallothionein MT2 . Cell adaptation . Copper ions . Saccharomyces cerevisiae Introduction The increasing use of metals in various domains of industry, technology, and everyday life comes at a very high price. Industrialization and urbanization have led to contamination of the environment with large amounts of heavy metals, which are present in ca. 10 % of the wastes produced by developed countries (Araújo et al. 2013). Environmental pollution with heavy metals is a very serious ecological problem, since metal ions are non-degradable. They can only be transformed from one oxidative state to another and be removed from contam- inated areas (Garbisu and Alkorta 2003; Hlihor et al. 2013). When present in water or soil, heavy metals may be intro- duced into food chains and thus cause irreversible damage to animals and humans (Garbisu and Alkorta 2003; Araújo et al. 2013; Shazia et al. 2013). Short-term exposure to drinking water contaminated with copper ions may cause gastrointesti- nal distress, while long-term consumption may cause liver or kidney damage (Araújo et al. 2013; US EPA 2013). The pres- ence of copper in drinking water as well as wastewater is therefore under strict regulation. The maximum contaminant level goal (MCLG) for copper in drinking water is 1.3 ppm (US EPA 2013) and its concentration cannot exceed 3–15 ppm in sanitary and combined sewers discharges (Sewerage and Drainage Act 1999; Sewer Use Program 2011). The main current methods for water purification from heavy metals are precipitation, ion exchange, electrochemical methods, and reverse osmosis (Hlihor et al. 2013). However, an alternative method of heavy metal bioremediation has been developed in the last few decades by several research groups and companies (Adamis et al. 2003; Wang and Chen 2006; Kuroda and Ueda 2010). This method is based on the utiliza- tion of heavy metal ions by organisms such as bacteria, fungi, yeast, algae. Bioremediation exhibits several advantages over traditional methods and was found to have economic Responsible editor: Robert Duran * Marina Nisnevitch marinan@ariel.ac.il 1 Department of Chemical Engineering, Biotechnology and Materials, Ariel University, Ariel, Israel 2 Department of Molecular Biology, Ariel University, Ariel, Israel Environ Sci Pollut Res (2016) 23:19613–19625 DOI 10.1007/s11356-016-7157-4