Bioremediation of waste gas and soil by black extremotolerant fungi.
Abstract
Recalcitrant environmental pollutants originating from recent and past industry as well as from sinks used for deposit of contaminated sludge are leaking into soil and water and seriously threaten not only the environment but also our food safety and our drinking water. Chemical and physical cleaning methods are by far too expensive and too intricate to be performed on a large scale. Bioremediation thus far has been concentrated on bacteria, however with several obstacles. A special group of fungi , namely the “black yeasts”, is very tolerant to adverse conditions (acid, heavy metals, temporal desiccation, low N and P supply, extreme temperatures, UV and radioactive irradiation). The potential of these fungi to degrade hydrocarbons and xenobiotics has been demonstrated for several species. Therefore these fungi are highly promising candidates for bioremediation. Two hundred fungi from 4 different phylogenetic groups will be screened for their ability to degrade benzene-derivates, alkanes and PCBs. These strains will be provided by the CBS-KNAW Fungal Biodiversity Center which hosts the largest collection of black yeasts. Further, highly contaminated sites will be screened for new fungal species by using selective media. The transcriptome of promising candidates will be sequenced (Ion Proton), and compared with protein expression profiles in order to identify the responsible enzymes and biodegradation pathways. The project will be the basis for biotechnological applications in industrial filters and for the set-up of ready to use kits (inocula) for environmental remediation.
keywords bioremediation soil extremotolerant fungi industrial waste gas
Publikationen
Project staff
Katja Sterflinger-Gleixner
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Katja Sterflinger-Gleixner
katja.sterflinger@boku.ac.at
Project Leader
01.03.2013 - 28.02.2016
BOKU partners
External partners
Centraalburau voor Schimmelcultures Utrecht CBS (NL)
Prof. de Hoog
partner
IRNA
Dr. Francesc Prenafeta
partner