Monkey metallothionein alpha domain tandem repeats (4mMT alpha), which exhibit high cadmium affinity, have been displayed for the first time on the surface of a bacterium using ice nucleation protein N-domain (inaXN) protein from the Xanthomonas campestris pv (ACCC-10049) as an anchoring motif. The shuttle vector pIME, which codes for INAXN-4mMT alpha-EGFP fusion, was constructed and used to target 4mMT alpha and EGFP on the surface of Pseudomonas putida X4 (CCTCC-209319). The surface location of the INAXN-4mMT alpha-EGFP fusion was further verified by western blot analysis and immunofluorescence microscopy. The growth of X4 showed resistance to cadmium presence. The presence of surface-exposed 4mMT alpha on the engineered strains was four times higher than that of the wild-type X4. The Cd2+ accumulation by X4/pIME was not only four times greater than that of the original host bacterial cells but was also remarkably unaffected by the presence of Cu2+ and Zn2+. Moreover, the surface-engineered strains could effectively bind Cd2+ under a wide range of pH levels, from 4 to 7. P. putida X4/pIME with surface-expressed 4mMT alpha-EGFP had twice the cadmium binding capacity as well as 1.4 times the fluorescence as the cytoplasmic 4mMTa-EGFP. These results suggest that P. putida X4 expressing 4mMT alpha-EGFP with the INAXN anchor motif on the surface would be a useful tool for the remediation and biodetection of environmental cadmium contaminants.