BEJOYSEKHAR DATTA
Abstract
A total of seven soil fungi, identified as Alternaria solani, Aspergillus (two species), Fusarium sp., Helminthosporium oryzae, Rhizopus sp., and Trichoderma sp. were isolated from the heavy metal contaminated soil sludge around the thermal power plant premises of Hooghly district of West Bengal, India. The isolates showed maximum resistance to zinc with minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) ranging from 5-25 mM and moderate resistance to cadmium and nickel with MIC ranging from 2-5 mM each. Metal tolerance index determined by observing growth of the fungi at 1 mM concentrations of each metal was also varied for the three metals. Trichoderma F14 which had highest tolerance to all the three metals was able to remove substantial amount of all the three metals from liquid media. When the isolate was grown separately in presence of Cd (100-500 mgL-1), Ni (50-250 mgL-1), and Zn (500-1500 mgL-1) it accumulated Cd (5.78-30.59 mgg-1), Ni (4.26-31.40 mgg-1), and Zn (16.33-25.42 mgg-1), respectively. Thus the fungal isolate has potential metal remediation property.