Effect of zinc and copper on cultivable populations of soil fungi with special reference to entomopathogenic fungi

Abstract

The effect of copper and zinc on cultivable soil fungi populations was investigated in a laboratory experiment. Samples of four different soils (arable sandy soil and loam clay; forest sandy soil and forest peat) were collected from sites located in Vilnius district, Lithuania. Metals' effect was elaborated by addition of metal salts (CuSO 4 and ZnSO 4 ) at appropriate concentrations into the growth medium (Czapek's agar) and evaluating culmedium (Czapek's agar) and evaluating cultivable fungi abundance and species diversity changes. Zinc or copper salt was added to the medium after its sterilization; zinc concentration varied from 0.05 to 0.20 M (by 0.05 M concentration range) and copper concentration -from 0.5 to 3.0 mM (by 0.15 mM concentration range). At elevated metal salt concentrations, the abundance of cultivable fungi decreased with a marked elimination of some fungi species as compared with a control medium (without metal addition) fungi cultures. Irrespective of a fungi community structure in different type soils, Cu was a stronger inhibitor of soil fungi population abundance than Zn, however, both metals showed a comparable effect on the fungi species diversity. The most resistant fungi belonged to common insect pathogens (Beuveria bassiana, Metarhizium anisopliae, Lecanicillium lecanii and Isaria spp.), which dominated comprising up to 90% of all recovered from the soils isolates, due to the metal salt concentration.

Fungicidal Activity of Some Metallic Ions, Fungicides and Essential Oils for Preventing Biodeterioration of Old Manuscripts

“…The other metallic ions were less effective on the growth of both fungi at different concentrations. The results were in agreement with those recorded by many authors [33,34]. Similar results were also observed by [17,35] who emphasized that, Zn, Mn, and Cu as sulphate reduced the linear growth and sporulation of F. oxysporum and T. viride.…”

Copper in Wood Preservatives Delayed Wood Decomposition and Shifted Soil Fungal but Not Bacterial Community Composition

“…In addition, the relative abundance of members of the genera Cryptococcus, Mortierella, Paecilomyces, Penicillium, and Talaromyces as well as unclassified members of the family Trichocomaceae increased, compared to that of other fungal genera, in the presence of coppercontaining treatments independent of the sampling site and incubation time ( Table 3). Members of these genera are known to be metal tolerant (27)(28)(29)(30), and some are tolerant to copper. Moreover, members of the genus Talaromyces are potent degraders of cellulose and demonstrate high tolerance to copper (29).…”

“…A shift in microbial composition followed by increased relative abundances of unclassified Chaetomiaceae as well as members of the genera Chaetomium and Fusarium (Table 3) was indeed observed. Members of the genera Chaetomium and Fusarium are known to be copper tolerant (30). Furthermore, Fusarium solani has been described as one of the most powerful degraders of lignin in forest soils and possesses lignin-degrading enzymatic activities, such as laccase and lignin peroxidase (32).…”

Copper tolerance, protein and catalytic activity in phytopathogenic fungus Alternaria alternata

“…CuSO4 was found to exhibit the highest reduction in fungus growth in comparison to rest of two salts. The difference in solubility, electron configuration, ionic radius and other chemical properties of SO4, NO3 and Cl2could possibly aid in their ability to differentially bind on functional groups in fungi along with induction of defence mechanism (metallothionein and glutamyl peptide) (Levinskaite, 2001;Pečiulytė and Dirginčiutė-Volodkienė, 2012). The toxic effect of the each metal salt was increased with elevating concentration in the growth medium (Collin-Hanse et al, 2005;Borkow and Gabbay, 2009).…”