Bulk isolation of basidiospores from wild mushrooms by electrostatic attraction with low risk of microbial contaminations

Abstract

The basidiospores of most Agaricomycetes are ballistospores. They are propelled off from their basidia at maturity when Buller’s drop develops at high humidity at the hilar spore appendix and fuses with a liquid film formed on the adaxial side of the spore. Spores are catapulted into the free air space between hymenia and fall then out of the mushroom’s cap by gravity. Here we show for 66 different species that ballistospores from mushrooms can be attracted against gravity to electrostatic charged plastic surfaces. Charges on basidiospores can influence this effect. We used this feature to selectively collect basidiospores in sterile plastic Petri-dish lids from mushrooms which were positioned upside-down onto wet paper tissues for spore release into the air. Bulks of 104 to >107 spores were obtained overnight in the plastic lids above the reversed fruiting bodies, between 104 and 106 spores already after 2–4 h incubation. In plating tests on agar medium, we rarely observed in the harvested spore solutions contaminations by other fungi (mostly none to up to in 10% of samples in different test series) and infrequently by bacteria (in between 0 and 22% of samples of test series) which could mostly be suppressed by bactericides. We thus show that it is possible to obtain clean basidiospore samples from wild mushrooms. The technique of spore collection through electrostatic attraction in plastic lids is applicable to fresh lamellate and poroid fruiting bodies from the wild, to short-lived deliquescent mushrooms, to older and dehydrating fleshy fruiting bodies, even to animal-infested mushrooms and also to dry specimens of long-lasting tough species such as Schizophyllum commune.

Toxicity and Bioremediation of Heavy Metals Contaminated Ecosystem from Tannery Wastewater: A Review

“…Coprinopsis atramentaria is studied for its ability to bioaccumulate 76 % of Cd 2+ , at a concentration of 1 mg L−1 of Cd 2+ , and 94.7% of Pb 2+ , at a concentration of 800 mg L−1 of Pb 2+ . Therefore, it has been documented as an effective accumulator of heavy metal ions for mycoremediation [ 132 ]. Park and his coauthors [ 133 ] reported that dead fungal biomass of Aspergillus niger, Rhizopus oryzae, Saccharomyces cerevisiae , and Penicillium chrysogenum could be used to convert toxic Cr (VI) to less toxic or nontoxic Cr (III).…”

Microbes used as a tool for bioremediation of heavy metal from the environment

“…Coprinopsis atramentaria was studied for its ability to bioaccumulate 76% of Cd 2+ at a concentration of 1 mg/L of Cd 2+ , and 94.7% of Pb 2+ , at a concentration of 800 mg/L of Pb 2+ . Therefore, it has been documented as an effective accumulator of heavy metal ions for mycoremediation (Lakkireddy & Kües, 2017). Park and his coauthors (Park et al, 2005) reported that dead fungal biomass of A. niger, Rhizopus oryzae, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and Penicillium chrysogenum could be used to convert toxic Cr (VI) to less toxic or nontoxic Cr (III).…”

Spores of puffball fungus Lycoperdon pyriforme as a reference standard of stable monodisperse aerosol for calibration of optical instruments

“…The fact that the fungal bioaerosol kept stable and no coagulation occurred can be explained by the electrostatic charge present on fungal spore surface. This charge prevents the spores from coagulation and coalescence [35]. The electrostatic charge and its relaxation time for 31 fungal species from basidiomycota division were measured by Saar et al [29]: the charge for the spores in the aerosol state was in a range of 21—981 electron changes (or (0.3 − 16.0) ⋅ 10 −17 C ) and decreased sevenfold within 47 minutes [29].…”

“…Therefore, collective aerodynamic properties of the spores were tailored by evolution, selecting those species which could spread their genetic material over larger areas [29]. The biologically induced electrostatic charge in the spores [29, 35] is just one of the many mechanisms that prevent aggregation and coagulation. The fungi have a variety of microbiological “tools” that serve for better aerosol stability, such as hydrophobins on the surface (for hydrophobicity) [33].…”