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Screening filamentous fungi isolated from estuarine sediments for the ability to oxidize polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

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Abstract

Nineteen filamentous fungi, isolated from estuarine sediments in Brazil, were screened for degradation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). The fungal isolates were incubated with pyrene. The cultures were extracted and metabolites in the extracts were detected by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and u.v. spectral analyses. Six fungi were selected for further studies using [4,5,9,10-14C]pyrene. Cyclothyrium sp., Penicillium simplicissimum, Psilocybe sp., and a sterile mycelium demonstrated the ability to transform pyrene. Cyclothyrium sp. was the most efficient fungus, transforming 48% of pyrene to pyrene trans-4,5-dihydrodiol, pyrene-1,6-quinone, pyrene-1,8-quinone and 1-hydroxypyrene. This fungus was also evaluated with a synthetic mixture of PAH. After 192 h of incubation, Cyclothyrium sp. was able to degrade simultaneously 70, 74, 59 and 38% of phenanthrene, pyrene, anthracene and benzo[a]pyrene, respectively.

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Author notes

  1. Manuela da Silva

    Present address: Department of Microbiology, INCQS/Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, 4365 Avenida Brasil, Manguinhos, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 21045-900, Brazil

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Food Science, School of Food Engineering, State University of Campinas, 13083-970, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil

    Manuela da Silva

  2. Department of Microbiology, INCQS/Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, 4365 Avenida Brasil, Manguinhos, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 21045-900, Brazil

    Carl E. Cerniglia & Jairaj V. Pothuluri

  3. Department of Food Science, School of Food Engineering, State University of Campinas, 13083-970, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil

    Vanderlei P. Canhos

  4. Department of Environmental Science, University of Mogi das Cruzes, 08780-911, Mogi das Cruzes, São Paulo, Brazil

    Elisa Esposito

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  1. Manuela da Silva
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  2. Carl E. Cerniglia
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  3. Jairaj V. Pothuluri
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  4. Vanderlei P. Canhos
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  5. Elisa Esposito
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da Silva, M., Cerniglia, C.E., Pothuluri, J.V. et al. Screening filamentous fungi isolated from estuarine sediments for the ability to oxidize polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology 19, 399–405 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1023994618879

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1023994618879

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