A preliminary study on the occurrence of keratinolytic fungi in the street sweepings from Chorzów.

The street sweepings from the city of Chorzów were surveyed for keratinolytic fungi. Out of 106 Petri dishes examined, 98 (92.4%) were positive for these micro-organisms. Altogether, 185 fungal appearances belonging to 15 species were observed. Chrysosporium keratinophilum, Malbranchea flava, Ch. europae, Sporothrix schenckii, ch. anamorphs of Aphanoascus reticulisporus/fulvescens, Ch. an. Arthroderma curreyi, and M. an. Uncinocarpus reessi predominated in the sweepings. The occurrence of Ch. keratinophilum, Ch. europae, Ch. an. A. curreyi, and S. schenckii could depend on the content of heavy metals and the individual fractions in the sweepings. The epidemiological aspect of the presence of pathogenic fungi in the street dust was briefly discussed.

Sorption of cadmium by filamentous soil fungi.

The article presents the evaluation of the short-term sorption of Cd by selected soil fungi. The Freundlich adsorption isotherm method for metal sorption modelling was applied. Fungal strains belonging to two classes, Zygomycetes and Ascomycetes, were used. Altogether, six species from Ascomycetes (A. niger, A. nidulans, Ps. boydii, T. koningii, P. janthinellum, P. verrucosum) and three from Zygomycetes (R. rhizopodiformis, R. oryzae, R. pusillus) were examined. These fungi were selected for experiments due to the differences in their cell wall compositions. The walls of Ascomycetes and Zygomycetes are in the chitin-glucan and in the chitosan-chitin groups, respectively. It was found that the biomass of A. nidulans and R. pusillus displayed the relatively high Cd sorption capacity. The sorption of Cd was similar among the fungi investigated. The metal accumulation by these fungi increased with increasing concentrations of Cd. The binding of Cd to the fungal biomass was an extremely rapid process. During the first 5 minutes, 72.75% of Cd was taken up by the fungal biomass. The fungal Cd sorption was increased in low pH (range from 3 to 5).

Effect of cadmium on growth of potentially pathogenic soil fungi.

The effect of Cd on the mycelial growth of some potentially pathogenic soil fungi was investigated. Sixty-four strains from twenty-five fungal species were tested for their susceptibility to Cd. Final colony diameter, radial growth rate and final dry mass of mycelium (for Cd: 1-200 ppm) were measured. EcD50 values were calculated from these parameters. The intra- and interspecific variability in the results obtained is presented. Among the keratinolytic fungal group, the general Arthrographis, trichophyton and Chrysosporium (including Chrysosporium anamorph of Aphanoascus reticulisporus) were the most resistant to Cd. T. mentagrophytes was the most sensitive of all Trichophyton species tested. Among the nonkeratinolytic fungal group, the genera Pseudallescheria, Absida and Rhizopus were highly resistant to Cd. Strains of Aspergillus were more resistant to Cd than strains of Penicillium. Zygomycetes were more resistant to Cd than Ascomycetes with Fungi Imperfecti. Nonkeratinolytic fungi showed higher resistance to Cd than keratinolytic fungi. The two last differences resulted from the extremely high EcD50 values for R. oryzae and A. corymbifera.

A preliminary study of the occurrence of actidione-resistant fungi in sediments of Catalonian river mouths (Spain). I. Keratinolytic fungi and related Onygenales.

Sediments from eight river mouths along the Catalonian coast (Spain) were surveyed for keratinolytic fungi and related Onygenales. The actidione plating technique was employed. Of 532 actidione-treated sediment samples, 268 (50.3%) were positive for the fungi. Altogether, 384 fungal strains from 35 species were isolated from the samples. Narasimhella marginospora, Aphanoascus fulvescens, Neoarachnotheca keratinophila with its anamorph Myriodontium keratinophilum, Narasimhella hyalinospora, Beauveria alba, Sporothrix schenckii, Chrysosporium lobatum and Gymnoascus littoralis were the predominant species in sediments. Abundance of N. marginospora was clearly correlated with the degree of water pollution with sewage.