Identification and characterization of melanized fungi with potential of toluene degradation

• Grant number: 13/01556-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: June 01, 2013
• End date: May 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Microbiology - Applied Microbiology
• Principal Investigator: Derlene Attili de Angelis
• Grantee: Noemi Carla Baron Cozentino
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Increasing Industrialization and population density has brought serious problems to the environment, leading to its contamination, and therefore the search for methods that can help clean up these sites is justified. Environmental contamination with monoaromatic hydrocarbons, especially BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes) is one of the major problems currently traversed. One of the proposed alternatives to promote recovery of the most affected environments is the bioremediation process, which uses micro-organisms, autochthonous and / or allochthonous, as a consumer source of pollutants released into the affected environment, usually the ground.The melanized fungi comprise a particular group of micro-organisms, characterized by black coloration of their colonies due to the deposition of melanin in their cell walls. Recent studies have shown its involvement in processes of biodegradation of hydrocarbons, including BTEX (Prenafeta-BOLDÚ et al., 2001; Prenafeta-BOLDÚ et al., 2002, Zhao et al., 2010). The extremophilic features and the oligotrophic character of these fungi are important aspects that corroborate their potential use in bioremediation processes, as well as in studies involving bioprospecting of new natural products, such as enzymes.After four years isolating fungi from different environmental substrates, our group has preserved a significant number of melanized cultures. Thus, this work aims mainly select among 200 strains of melanized fungi of this collection, those most capable of biodegrading toluene. The focus of this work opens the door to studies involving the bioprospecting of enzymes for application in environmental biotechnology using melanized fungi.

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

BARON, NOEMI CARLA; PAGNOCCA, FERNANDO CARLOS; OTSUKA, AYUMI AQUINO; XAVIER PRENAFETA-BOLDU, FRANCESC; VICENTE, VANIA APARECIDA; DE ANGELIS, DERLENE ATTILI. Black Fungi and Hydrocarbons: An Environmental Survey for Alkylbenzene Assimilation. MICROORGANISMS, v. 9, n. 5, MAY 2021. (13/01556-2)

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

COZENTINO, Noemi Carla Baron. Identificação e caracterização de fungos melanizados com potencial de degradação de tolueno. 2014. Master's Dissertation - Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp). Instituto de Biociências. Rio Claro Rio Claro.