64-68Heavy metals have caused a lot of imbalance in the environment due to its widespread ill effects. There have been tremendous efforts to reduce the levels of these metals from the environment, but demerits of existing methods exceed over the merits in most of the cases and hence there is a need for more effective mechanisms. In the present study, resistance profile of Candida parapsilosis was studied against various heavy metals. A time based tolerance study was performed using up to 12 mM concentrations of heavy metal salts such as zinc sulfate (Zn), cupric sulfate (Cu), lead acetate (Pb), mercury chloride (Hg), nickel sulfate (Ni), and potassium chromate (Cr). It was observed that tolerance against heavy metal depends upon its concentration as well as time of exposure. The obtained pattern of resistance for each individual heavy metal was Ni > Zn > Cu > Cr > Pb > Hg. Maximum growth of 57.6% was obtained for Ni salt and least for Hg with 26.9% cell viability at 12 mM concentration. Cell viability decreased as time of exposure was increased. After 72 h only 16.4% cell growth was obtained for Hg as compared to Ni showing cell viability of 37.5% up to 12 mM concentration. Significant resistance to other salts such as Zn, Cu, Cr and Pd have also been shown by C. parapsilosis
