ISOLATION, IDENTIFICATION AND HEAVY METAL TOLERANCE OF FUNGAL STRAINS ISOLATED FROM HEAVY METAL CONTAMINATED RIVER GOMTISABA HASAN, ZIYAUL HAQUE, KAYNAT HAIDER AND VARHSHIKA MEHROTRAAbstract The accumulation of the heavy metals in the environment generally makes physiological and morphological changes in the microbes. So mostly these contaminated regions become the sites for heavy metal resistant microbes. Considering the importance of filamentous fungi for bioremediation of wastewater and contaminated soils, this investigation was undertaken to check the metal tolerance potential of indigenous filamentous fungi. Forty two fungal strains were isolated from soils sediments with untreated industrial effluents of River Gomti using dilution technique and six prominent isolates were used to test for metal tolerance. The isolated fungal strains were screened for their tolerance against different concentrations of heavy metals, namely, Cadmium (Cd), Zinc (Zn), Copper (Cu) and Chromium (Cr), in the concentration range of 100-900 ppm. After microscopic identification, the fungal strains were given the Accession Numbers KM-01, KM-02, KM-03, KM-04 and KM-05 respectively. The results revealed that the fungal strain KM-01, KM-02 and KM-05 displayed high metal tolerance than other fungi, which was in the range of 500-800 ppm. Results of biosorption of these heavy metals revealed that maximum uptake was observed in KM-05 in presence of the heavy metal Zinc (0.91mg/g). However, significant uptake was also observed with Cadmium (0.82 mg/g) and Copper (0.68 mg/g) in KM -03, followed by the isolate KM-01 where uptake of the heavy metal Zinc was significant (0.58 mg/g). The metal tolerant fungi can successfully be used for bioremediation as it is an efficient strategy due to its low cost high efficiency and eco-friendly nature.
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