| NUKLEONIKA 2009, 54(4):285-290
Pu(IV) AND Fe(III) ACCUMULATION ABILITY OF HEAVY METAL-TOLERANT SOIL FUNGILoreta Levinskaite1, Alexey Smirnov1, Benedikta Luksiene2, Ruta Druteikiene2, Vidmantas Remeikis2, Dalis Baltrunas2 1 Laboratory of Biodeterioration Research, Institute of Botany, 49 Žaliuju ežeru Str., LT-08406, Vilnius, Lithuania 2 Nuclear and Environmental Radioactivity Research Laboratory, Institute of Physics, 231 Savanoriu Ave., LT-02300, Vilnius, Lithuania The work was aimed at studying abilities of soil microorganisms to participate in metal/radionuclide mobility processes by accumulating them. Soil microorganisms were treated with a mixture of heavy metals (Cr(III), Ni, Fe(III), Mn(II), Cd) in order to isolate the most tolerant ones. Among more metal-tolerant microorganisms microscopic fungi dominated. Tests of fungal tolerance towards each metal showed that the most tolerant fungi to almost all metals were Aspergillus niger, Penicillium oxalicum and Paecilomyces lilacinus. Accumulation ability of metal-tolerant fungi was tested using Pu(IV) and Fe(III). Investigation of Pu accumulation by fungal biomass showed that all the fungi accumulated Pu, and among the most effective radionuclide accumulators Eupenicillium sp., Penicillium oxalicum and Aspergillus niger could be mentioned. All the fungi showed high Fe-accumulation capacity. While growing in the medium with 1 mM iron, most fungi accumulated over 90% of Fe in their biomass. Very good accumulation and growth abilities in Fe-supplemented medium were demonstrated by Paecilomyces lilacinus. Close X |