Heavy metal biosorption by chitin and chitosan isolated from Cunninghamella elegans (IFM 46109)

Abstract

Chitin and chitosan were extracted from mycelial biomass of Cunninghamella elegans and the performance for copper, lead and iron biosorption in aqueous solution was evaluated. The growth curve of C. elegans was accomplished by determination of biomass, pH, glucose and nitrogen consumption. Chitin and chitosan were extracted by alkali-acid treatment and the yields were 23.8 and 7.8%, respectively. For the adsorption analysis, the process of heavy uptake metal sorption was evaluated using polysaccharides solutions (1% w/v). The rate of metallic biosorption was dependent upon the concentration and pH of metal solutions, and the best results were observed with pH 4.0. Chitosan showed the highest affinity for copper and chitin for iron adsorption. The results suggest that C. elegans (IFM 46109) is an attractive source of production of chitin and chitosan, with a great potential of heavy metals bioremediation in polluted environments.

Plant and soil characteristics affected by biofertilizers from rocks and organic matter inoculated with diazotrophic bacteria and fungi that produce chitosan

“…After the production of the biofertilizer (NPKB), we added a micelial biomass of the Mucorales fungi, Cunninghamella elegans (UCP 542), which produce sufficient chitin (140 mg g -1 ) and chitosan (80 mg g -1 ) in the cellular wall, as reported by Franco et al (2004). The fungi were grown in Petri dishes with BDA medium for 10 days at 28 °C, producing a final concentration of 106 spores/ mL -1 , to which 5 mL of spore suspension were applied; the mixture was then shaken for 96 hours (150 rpm) at room temperature.…”

“…The highest amount of total N in soil was found when NPKB with C. elegans was added to substrate that produces chitosan, and this biopolymer increased the nutrient content, especially nitrogen, due to the high amount of N in the acetylated chain of chitosan from C. elegans (Franco et al 2004(Franco et al , 2011. The available P and K in soil after the treatments is shown in Table 5.…”

“…In our laboratory, we obtained good results using chitosan from Mucorales fungi, such as Cunninghamella elegans, Mucor rouxii, and Mucor circineloides (Franco et al, 2004). Fungi biomass has not been used for chitosan addition after the production of biofertilizers from rocks plus elemental sulfur inoculated with the sulfur oxidizing bacteria Acidithiobacillus.…”

“…The use of chitosan from fungi biomass has great advantages, such as independence from seasonal factors, wide scale production, simultaneous extraction of chitin and chitosan, and the fact that the process of chitosan extraction is simple and cheap, resulting in reduced time and cost. Moreover, this strategy avoids protein contamination, particularly from proteins that could cause allergic reactions in individuals with shell fish allergies (Franco et al, 2004).…”

Biossorção de cobre, manganês e cádmio por biomassas de Saprolegnia subterranea (Dissmann) R.L. Seym. e Pythium torulosum Coker & P. Patt. (Oomycetes)

“…Dentre os mecanismos envolvidos em biossorção, destacam-se troca iônica, adsorção, complexação, precipitação e cristalização (Gadd 1993). No Brasil, tem sido realizados estudos visando a biossorção de metais pesados pelo emprego de biomassas fúngicas (Gomes et al 2002;Barros Jr et al 2003;Franco et al 2004) e de outros tipos de biomassas tais como: de bactérias Micrococcus luteus (Mesquita et al 1998), de microalgas continentais (Leite et al 1993;Costa et al 1994), de Sarghassum spp. (Costa et al 1996;Davis et al 2000;Valdman et al 2001) e de macrófitas aquáticas (Schneider et al 2001).…”