Soil fungi for mycoremediation of arsenic pollution in agriculture soils.
OBJECTIVE
Soil arsenic (As) contamination of food-chains and public health can be mitigated through fungal bioremediation. To enumerate culturable soil fungi, soils were collected from the As-contaminated paddy fields (3-35 mg kg(-1) ) of the middle Indo-Gangetic Plains.


RESULTS
Total 54 fungal strains were obtained and identified at their molecular level. All strains were tested for As tolerance (from 100 to 10,000 mg l(-1) arsenate). Fifteen fungal strains, tolerant to 10,000 mg l(-1) arsenate, were studied for As removal in-vivo for 21 days by cultivating them individually in potato dextrose broth enriched with 10 mg l(-1) As. The bioaccumulation of As in fungal biomass ranged from 0·023 to 0·259 g kg(-1). The biovolatilized As ranged from 0·23 to 6·4 mg kg(-1).


CONCLUSIONS
Higher As bioaccumulation and biovolatilization observed in the seven fungal strains, Aspergillus oryzae FNBR_L35; Fusarium sp. FNBR_B7, FNBR_LK5 and FNBR_B3; Aspergillus nidulans FNBR_LK1; Rhizomucor variabilis sp. FNBR_B9; and Emericella sp. FNBR_BA5. These fungal strains were also tested and found suitable for significant plant growth promotion in the calendula, withania and oat plants in a greenhouse based pot experiment.


CONCLUSIONS
These fungal strains can be used for As remediation in As-contaminated agricultural soils.
CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow, India.|Department of Botany, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India.
M
M
Singh
CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow, India.
P K
PK
Srivastava
CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow, India.
P C
PC
Verma
Department of Botany, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India.
R N
RN
Kharwar
CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow, India.
N
N
Singh
CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow, India.
R D
RD
Tripathi
D000383:Agriculture; D001151:Arsenic / Q000378:metabolism*; D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D005658:Fungi / Q000145:classification / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012988:Soil Microbiology; D012989:Soil Pollutants / Q000378:metabolism*
D012989:Soil Pollutants; D001151:Arsenic
Soil; arsenic removal; bioremediation; metalloid pollution; plant growth promotion