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Diversity and Heavy Metal Tolerance of Fungi Associated with Different Coal Overburden Strata of Tikak Colliery, Assam

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Abstract

Coal mine overburdens are generally highly acidic and contaminated with toxic heavy metals. Here, we studied the culturable fungal diversity associated with different coal overburden strata (OBS) of Assam, India, and assessed their heavy metal tolerance ability against five different heavy metals viz., As3+, Cd2+, Cr6+, Cu2+, and Ni2+. Among 15 distinct coal OBS considered in this study which spans a depth of ~ 35 m from the ground surface, the isolation of fungi was successful only from 11 OBS samples and the colony-forming unit (CFU) counts were highly variable among the samples. A total of 66 fungal pure cultures were isolated which belong to 18 genera (17 known and 1 unknown) under 15 families and two divisions i.e., Ascomycota (89.4%) and Basidiomycota (10.6%). Acidiella bohemica was found relatively the most abundant species followed by Rhodotorula toruloides. A good number of fungal isolates was found tolerant to the test heavy metals at concentrations ≥ 1 mM. Findings of some multi-metallotolerant fungal isolates along with a tolerance up to 5 mM concentration of As3+, and up to 10 mM each of Cu2+, Cr6+, Ni2+ and Cd2+ were noteworthy in the present study that could be useful in the management of heavy metal pollution or stress.

Graphical Abstract

Cultivable fungal diversity of coal mine overburden strata of Tikak colliery, Margherita, Assam, India. It shows a photograph of the coal mining site as the background, front view of the fungal colonies in the upper section, and a graphical representation of heavy metal tolerance of the isolates at different concentrations of As, Cd, Cr, Cu, and Ni in the lower section.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Department of Botany, Gauhati University for providing the research facilities that are supported by the DST-FIST and UGC-SAP. KNS is thankful to the CSIR, Govt. of India for the research fellowship (Award Ref. No. 09/059(0059)/2017-EMR-I). The authors also thank Coal India Ltd., Margherita for permission and logistic support to explore the mining sites for the microbiological study.

Funding

This research was funded by the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Govt. of India (Sanction Order No. BT/408/NE/U-Excel/2013) and CSIR-HRDC, Govt. of India (Award Ref. No. 09/059(0059)-2017-EMR-I)

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  1. Microbiology and Molecular Systematics Laboratory, Department of Botany, Gauhati University, Guwahati, Assam, India

    Khomdram Niren Singh & Diganta Narzary

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DN conceptualized the research project. KNS conducted the experimental works. KNS drafted and DN finalized the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Diganta Narzary.

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Deposition in repositories: Nucleotide sequences of nrDNA-ITS regions were submitted to the DNA Database of Japan (DDBJ) and the sequences are also accessible through the NCBI.

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Singh, K.N., Narzary, D. Diversity and Heavy Metal Tolerance of Fungi Associated with Different Coal Overburden Strata of Tikak Colliery, Assam. Curr Microbiol 80, 72 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-022-03170-3

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