Production of Catalases by Aspergillus niger Isolates as a Response to Pollutant Stress by Heavy Metals

Abstract

Isolates of Aspergillus niger, selected from the coal dust of a mine containing arsenic (As; 400 mg/kg) and from the river sediment of mine surroundings (As, 1651 mg/kg, Sb, 362 mg/kg), growing in minimal nitrate medium in the phase of hyphal development and spore formation, exhibited much higher levels of total catalase activity than the same species from the culture collection or a culture adapted to soil contaminated with As (5 mg/L). Electrophoretic resolution of catalases in cell-free extracts revealed three isozymes of catalases and production of individual isozymes was not significantly affected by stress environments. Exogenously added stressors (As⁵⁺, Cd²⁺, Cu²⁺) at final concentrations of 25 and 50 mg/L and H₂O₂ (20 or 40 mM) mostly stimulated production of catalases only in isolates from mines surroundings, and H₂O₂ and Hg²⁺ caused the disappearance of the smallest catalase I. Isolates exhibited a higher tolerance of the toxic effects of heavy metals and H₂O₂, as monitored by growth, than did the strain from the culture collection.