Isolation of filamentous fungi present in swine wastewater that are resistant and with the ability to remove atrazine

Abstract

In this work, we isolated and identified filamentous fungi present in swine wastewater (SW) that are resistant and with the ability to remove atrazine removal. For the isolation, the SW was inoculated into liquid medium containing 0.01 and 0.1 g L-1 of atrazine and after the adaptation period, was transferred on solid medium containing 10 mg L-1 atrazine. Three strains of filamentous fungi were isolated and identified as Cladosporium cladosporioide, Rhizopus stolonifer and Penicillium purpurogenum. The isolates were tested for their ability to degrade atrazine in liquid medium containing 1.5 g L-1 of the herbicide as single source of carbon and nitrogen. In 15 days of culture, the isolated R. stolonifer showed a higher removal rate (73.75%), followed by P. purpurogenum (73.42%) and C. cladosporioides (68.42%), indicating a high possibility of using these microorganisms in the removal of atrazine in waters and effluents.

Role of fungi in bioremediation of emerging pollutants

“…Even though the first countries banned DDT in the 1970s, it is still in use in many countries and its derivatives persist in nature for decades (Loganathan and Kannan, 1991). Fungi have been reported to degrade a wide range of different pesticides, including organochlorines, organophosphorus compounds, pyrethroids, and carbamates (Maqbool et al, 2016;Bokade et al, 2021;Bose et al, 2021;Kumar et al, 2021); for example Lindane (Dritsa et al, 2009), Endosulfan (Bhalerao and Puranik, 2007), DDT (Purnomo et al, 2010), Atrazine (Bastos and Magan, 2009;Goncalves et al, 2012), Dieldrin and Aldrin (Xiao et al, 2011), among others. In some cases, specific fungi are even suggested as candidates to degrade fungicides, such as broad-spectrum pyrazole-carboxamide fluxapyroxad (Podbielska et al, 2020), which is often applied to counteract fungal diseases of apple trees (He et al, 2016).…”

“…Just as the term 'pesticide' encompasses a wider range of different compounds, degradation of these is not confined to one fungal taxon. Known pesticide-degrading fungi belong to the genera Trametes (Bastos and Magan, 2009), Ganoderma (Dritsa et al, 2009), Aspergillus (Bhalerao and Puranik, 2007), Fusarium (Guilleń-Jimeńez et al, 2012), Pleurotus (Purnomo et al, 2010), Cladosporium, Rhizopus and Penicillium (Goncalves et al, 2012), Phlebia (Xiao et al, 2011), and Mortiella (Badawi et al, 2009), among many others. These genera belong to different fungal groups such as white rot fungi (WRF), brown rot fungi, filamentous fungi, and yeasts and representative species of all groups have been investigated for the degradation of pesticides.…”