Potential for bioremediation of agro-industrial effluents with high loads of pesticides by selected fungi

Abstract

Wastewaters from the fruit packaging industry contain a high pesticide load and require treatment before their environmental discharge. We provide first evidence for the potential bioremediation of these wastewaters. Three white rot fungi (WRF) (Phanerochaete chrysosporium, Trametes versicolor, Pleurotus ostreatus) and an Aspergillus niger strain were tested in straw extract medium (StEM) and soil extract medium (SEM) for degrading the pesticides thiabendazole (TBZ), imazalil (IMZ), thiophanate methyl (TM), ortho-phenylphenol (OPP), diphenylamine (DPA) and chlorpyrifos (CHL). Peroxidase (LiP, MnP) and laccase (Lac) activity was also determined to investigate their involvement in pesticide degradation. T. versicolor and P. ostreatus were the most efficient degraders and degraded all pesticides (10 mg l⁻¹) except TBZ, with maximum efficiency in StEM. The phenolic pesticides OPP and DPA were rapidly degraded by these two fungi with a concurrent increase in MnP and Lac activity. In contrast, these enzymes were not associated with the degradation of CHL, IMZ and TM implying the involvement of other enzymes. T. versicolor degraded spillage-level pesticide concentrations (50 mg l⁻¹) either fully (DPA, OPP) or partially (TBZ, IMZ). The fungus was also able to rapidly degrade a mixture of TM/DPA (50 mg l⁻¹), whereas it failed to degrade IMZ and TBZ when supplied in a mixture with OPP. Overall, T. versicolor and P. ostreatus showed great potential for the bioremediation of wastewaters from the fruit packaging industry. However, degradation of TBZ should be also achieved before further scaling up.

Characterization of the biodegradation, bioremediation and detoxification capacity of a bacterial consortium able to degrade the fungicide thiabendazole

“…Despite that, TBZ was completely degraded by the bacterial consortium in all cases, which is a desirable asset for future biodepuration applications where composite inocula might be applied for the clean-up of poly-contaminated wastewaters. In the only other study investigating the biodegradation of TBZ, the fungus Trametes versicolor failed to degrade TBZ when exposed to a mixture of pesticides (Karas et al 2011).…”

Optimization of aqueous methylparathion biodegradation by Fusarium sp in batch scale process using response surface methodology

“…To date, biotransformations have been the main focus in research on organophosphate pesticide degradation. Studies on pesticide metabolism by other fungi such as Aspergillus niger degrading Chlorpyrifos (Karas et al 2011), pyrethroid (Liang et al 2005), fenitrothion (Kanaly et al 2005), dimethoate (Liu et al 2001) and Aspergillus flavus for metolachlor (Sanyal and Kulshrestha 2004) are also reported. Moreover, Phanerochaete chrysosporium, Trametes versicolor and Pleurotus ostreatus for Chlorpyrifos degradation are reported (Karas et al 2011).…”

Evaluation of Chlorpyrifos Tolerance and Degradation by Non-Toxigenic Aspergillus Section Flavi Strains Isolated from Agricultural Soils

“…The mixtures were subsequently passed through a 0.45 µm syringe filter (Sartorius Stedim Biotech GmbH Goettingen Germany) and the filtrates were used for HPLC analysis followed the methodology proposed by Karas et al, (2011). The HPLC system consisted of a Hewlett-Packard 1100 pump (Palo Alto, CA, USA) connected to a Hewlett-Packard 1046 programmable fluorescence detector, interfaced to a Hewlett-Packard Chem Station.…”

“…Several authors have reported microorganisms, both fungi and bacteria, with the potential ability to degrade chlorpyrifos (Maya et al, 2012;Chishti et al, 2013;Dhanya, 2014). There is scarce information about chlorpyrifos tolerance or degradation by fungal strains (Omar, 1998;Karas et al, 2011;Maya et al, 2012), even more by Aspergillus spp. strains (Silambarasan and Abraham, 2013;Hindumathy and Gayathri, 2013;Yavad et al, 2014;Carranza et al, 2014).…”

“…Also, Gaoet al (2012) obtained similar results with Cladosporium cladosporioides strain. Karas et al(2011) evaluated the degradation of several pesticides (among them chlorpyrifos) by three white rot fungi and one strain of A. niger.…”