Tellurium and selenium oxyanions are found as trace components in natural environments as well as in higher concentrations within polluted soils and water. Tellurium compounds can be found in high concentrations near sites of waste discharge, while selenium is present in the soluble form in a alkaline soils and water. Some of the tellurium and selenium oxyanions are highly toxic and mutagenic for bacteria and mammals. In the current study, high-level tellurite and selenite resistant moderately halophilic coccus was isolated and the reduction of tellurite and selenite and the effect Manual of Systematic Bacteriology and the physiological and biochemical tests formed. It was tentatively named as Salinicoccus sp. strain QW6. A microbiological process using Salinicoccus sp. strain QW6 was developed for the reduction of tellurite and selenite. During the process tellurite and selenite have undergone a transformation in the black metallic elemental tellurium and red metallic elemental selenium. The deposits were observed with a transmission electron microscope and confirmed by X-ray energy-dispersive spectrogram analysis. Studies were carried out in Erlen-Meyer flasks (100 mM) containing 25 ml sterile nutrient medium supplemented with 0.5 mM tellurite and 6 mM selenite. The media were inoculated with cell suspensions (1.5 × 108 CFU/ml) and incubated under stationary conditions (T: 35º C, pH 7.5, agitation: 150 rpm, for 72 h). After incubation the contents of the flasks were analysed for residual tellurium and selenium by X-ray fluorescence analysis (XRF).
