Tapping into fungal potential: Biodegradation of plastic and rubber by potent Fungi.

Plastic polymers are present in most aspects of routine daily life. Their increasing leakage into the environment poses a threat to environmental, animal, and human health. These polymers are often resistant to microbial degradation and are predicted to remain in the environment for tens to hundreds of years. Fungi have been shown to degrade complex polymers and are considered good candidates for bioremediation (biological pollutant reduction) of plastics. Therefore, we screened 18 selected fungal strains for their ability to degrade polyurethane (PU), polyethylene (PE), and tire rubber. As a proxy for plastic polymer mineralization, we quantified O2 consumption and CO2 production in an enclosed biodegradation system providing plastic as the sole carbon source. In contrast to most studies we demonstrated that the tested fungi attach to, and colonize the different plastic polymers without any pretreatment of the plastics and in the absence of sugars, which were suggested essential for priming the degradation process. Functional polymer groups identified by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and changes in fungal morphology as seen in light and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used as indicators of fungal adaptation to growth on PU as a substrate. Thereby, SEM analysis revealed new morphological structures and deformation of the cell wall of several fungal strains when colonizing PU and utilizing this plastic polymer for cell growth. Strains of Fusarium, Penicillium, Botryotinia cinerea EN41, and Trichoderma demonstrated a high potential to degrade PU, rubber, and PE. Growing on PU, over 90 % of the O2 was consumed in <14 days with 300-500 ppm of CO2 generated in parallel. Our study highlights a high bioremediation potential of some fungal strains to efficiently degrade plastic polymers, largely dependent on plastic type.

Seasonal fluctuations and diversity of Ingoldian mycobiota in two water bodies receiving different effluents at Assiut Governorate (Upper Egypt).

In the current study, fifty-eight Ingoldain fungal species assignable to forty-one genera were recovered from two water bodies receiving the treated sewage and the effluents of oils and soaps factory at Assiut Governorate (Upper Egypt), of which Anguillospora, Amniculicola, Flagellospora, and Mycocentrospora were the most prevalent genera. The most widespread identified species were Anguillospora furtive, Amniculicola longissima and Flagellospora fusarioides. Forty-three species were identified for the first time in Egypt. The most Ingoldain taxa were estimated for El-Zinnar canal, with the highest recorded taxa in winter. Whereas, the highest dominance of Ingoldian fungi was estimated for the El-Ibrahimia canal. The highest Simpson and Shannon diversity indexes were estimated for El-Zinnar canal samples recording 0.9683 and 3.741, respectively. The poorest water sites with Ingoldian fungi were those exposed directly to either treated sewage or industrial effluents, with which relatively higher values of water conductivity, cations and anions. Water temperature was the main abiotic factor driving the seasonal occurrence of Ingoldian fungi. It is interesting to isolate some Ingoldian fungal species from the stressful water sites receiving the effluents which provide valuable insights regarding their adaptation, predictive and putative role as bioindicators and their potentiality in pollutants degradation, organic decomposition, and transformation of xenobiotic compounds.