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Fungal Attack on Environmental Pollutants Representing Poor Microbial Growth Substrates

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Grand Challenges in Fungal Biotechnology

Part of the book series: Grand Challenges in Biology and Biotechnology ((GCBB))

Abstract

Microbial growth on the basis of the oxidation of organic environmental pollutants is commonly hampered if these (1) are only poorly water-soluble or practically insoluble in water (e.g. solid synthetic polymers like plastics, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons), (2) occur only in trace concentrations (e.g. the so-called micropollutants), or (3) are already highly oxidised, thus providing only little energy to potential degrader organisms (e.g. certain highly chlorinated organic compounds). Cometabolism, which is prominent in fungi, enables to attack environmental pollutants without the need for utilising them as growth substrates. This chapter presents and discusses fungal cometabolic and productive degradation capabilities with regard to the biocatalytic breakdown of different environmental pollutant groups, which share the common characteristic of representing only poor substrates for microbial growth, from a biochemical, eco-physiological, evolutionary, and biotechnological perspective.

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Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres and contributes to the Chemicals in the Environment (CITE) Research Programme conducted at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research—UFZ.

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  1. Department of Environmental Microbiology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, Leipzig, Germany

    Dietmar Schlosser

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  1. Department of Molecular Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Helena Nevalainen

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Schlosser, D. (2020). Fungal Attack on Environmental Pollutants Representing Poor Microbial Growth Substrates. In: Nevalainen, H. (eds) Grand Challenges in Fungal Biotechnology. Grand Challenges in Biology and Biotechnology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29541-7_2

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