PT14 Remediation of POPs
Exhibit Hall
8:00 AM - Tuesday, 11 November 2003
(PT219) The ecto-mycorrhizosphere as a bioreactor for persistent organic pollutant (POP) remediation.
Genney, D1, Alexander, I1, Killham, K1, Ineson, P2, Meharg, A1, 1 School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK2 Department of Biology, University of York, York, UK
ABSTRACT- The ecto-mycorrhizosphere provides an ideal environment for the degradation of persistent organic pollutants (POP's) due to interactions between host, mycorrhizal fungi and mycorrhizosphere bacteria. Ectomycorrhizal (EcM) fungi are capable of POP degradation. Although POP degradation by non-mycorrhizal white-rot fungi has been extensively studied, their use as efficient remediation agents is limited because the fungi must be inoculated along with a source of carbon, such as wood-chips, which are difficult to distribute throughout the soil volume. EcM associations may overcome these problems because EcM fungi are distributed throughout the soil by roots and provided with a long-term supply of photosynthetic carbon from their hosts. We have demonstrated that some EcM fungi (e.g. Amanita rubescens) can readily hydroxylate polyaromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) rings, with these hydroxylated compounds accumulating as dead end metabolites. Despite this ability, naturally established EcM pine seedlings retarded fluorene mineralisation by c. 35% compared to unplanted (non-mycorrhizal) controls. It is important to determine how EcM communities degrade PAHs in order to understand their protective role in natural forest soils and potential for in-situ bioremediation of locally polluted sites.
Key words: pah, ectomycorrhiza, pine, remediation