Sorption of zinc onto elemental selenium nanoparticles immobilized in Phanerochaete chrysosporium pellets.

The use of a novel hybrid biosorbent, elemental selenium nanoparticles (nSe0) immobilized in pellets of Phanerochaete chrysosporium, to remove Zn from aqueous solutions was investigated. Fungal pellets containing nSe0 (nSe0-pellets) showed to be better biosorbents as they removed more Zn (88.1 ± 5.3 %) compared to Se-free fungal pellets (56.2 ± 2.8 %) at pH 4.5 and an initial Zn concentration of 10 mg L-1. The enhanced sorption capacity of nSe0-pellets was attributed to a higher concentration of sorption sites resulting in a more negative surface charge density, as determined by analysis of the potentiometric titration data. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) analysis of fungal pellets prior to and after being loaded with Zn showed the functional groups, including hydroxyl and carboxyl groups, involved in the sorption process. The experimental data indicated that the sorption rate of the nSe0-pellets fitted well to the pseudo-second order kinetic model (R 2  = 0.99), and the sorption isotherm was best represented by the Sips model (Langmuir-Freundlich) with heterogeneous factor n = 1 (R 2  = 0.99), which is equivalent to the Langmuir model. Operational advantages of fungal pelleted reactors and the Zn removal efficiencies achieved by nSe0-pellets under mild acidic conditions make nSe0-pellet based bioreactors an efficient biosorption process.

Chitosan beads immobilized manganese peroxidase catalytic potential for detoxification and decolorization of textile effluent.

Textile industry has led to severe environmental pollution and is posing a serious threat to the ecosystems. Immobilized biocatalysts have gained importance as potential bio-remediating agent. Manganese peroxidase (MnP) was immobilized onto glutaraldehyde activated chitosan beads by crosslinking and employed for the degradation and detoxification of dyes in textile effluents. The efficiency of chitosan-immobilized MnP (CI-MnP) was evaluated on the basis of decolorization, water quality improvement and toxicity reduction. Maximum color removal of 97.31% was recorded and up to 82.40%, 78.30% and 91.7% reductions in COD, TOC, and BOD were achieved, respectively. The cytotoxicity of bio-treated effluents reduced significantly and 38.46%, 43.47% and 41.83% Allium cepa root length, root count and mitotic index were increased, respectively, whereas brine shrimp nauplii death reduced up to 63.64%. Mutagenicity (Ames test) reduced up to 73.44% and 75.43% for TA98 and TA100 strains, respectively. The CI-MnP retained 60% activity after 10 repeated decolorization batches. The CI-MnP showed excellent efficiency for the bioremediation of textile effluents and can be used for the remediation of toxic agents in wastewater. The monitoring of processed wastewater using bioassays is suggested to evaluate bio-efficiency of treatment method for safe disposal of effluents into water bodies.

New substrates and activity of Phanerochaete chrysosporium Omega glutathione transferases.

Omega glutathione transferases (GSTO) constitute a family of proteins with variable distribution throughout living organisms. It is notably expanded in several fungi and particularly in the wood-degrading fungus Phanerochaete chrysosporium, raising questions concerning the function(s) and potential redundancy of these enzymes. Within the fungal families, GSTOs have been poorly studied and their functions remain rather sketchy. In this study, we have used fluorescent compounds as activity reporters to identify putative ligands. Experiments using 5-chloromethylfluorescein diacetate as a tool combined with mass analyses showed that GSTOs are able to cleave ester bonds. Using this property, we developed a specific activity-based profiling method for identifying ligands of PcGSTO3 and PcGSTO4. The results suggest that GSTOs could be involved in the catabolism of toxic compounds like tetralone derivatives. Biochemical investigations demonstrated that these enzymes are able to catalyze deglutathionylation reactions thanks to the presence of a catalytic cysteine residue. To access the physiological function of these enzymes and notably during the wood interaction, recombinant proteins have been immobilized on CNBr Sepharose and challenged with beech wood extracts. Coupled with GC-MS experiments this ligand fishing method allowed to identify terpenes as potential substrates of Omega GST suggesting a physiological role during the wood-fungus interactions.

Surface-modified Phanerochaete chrysosporium as a biosorbent for Cr(VI)-contaminated wastewater.

To improve the removal efficiency of heavy metals from wastewater, the surface of a fungal biomass was modified to obtain a high-capacity biosorbent for Cr(VI) in wastewater. The effects of pH, initial concentration, and sorption time on Cr(VI) removal by polyethylenimine (PEI)-modified Phanerochaete chrysosporium were investigated. The biomass adsorption capacity was significantly dependent on the pH of the solution, and the optimum pH was approximately 3.0. The maximum removal for Cr(VI) was 344.8 mg/g as determined with the Langmuir adsorption isotherm. Pseudo-first-order Lagergren model is better than pseudo-second-order Lagergren model when simulating the kinetic experiment results. Furthermore, an amount of Cr(VI) was reduced to Cr(III), indicating that some reactions occurred on the surface of the biomass leading to the reduction of Cr(VI). The point of zero potential for the modified biomass increased from an initial pH of 3.0 to a much higher value of 10.8, indicating that the PEI-modified biomass is better than the pristine biomass for adsorption of anionic adsorbates. Results showed that the PEI-modified biosorbent presented high efficiency in treating Cr(VI)-contaminated wastewater.