Fungal Diversity and Dynamics During Bioremediation of Crude Oilpolluted Soil

Title:Fungal Diversity and Dynamics During Bioremediation of Crude Oilpolluted Soil

Volume: 7 Issue: 2

Author(s): Chioma Blaise Chikere*Chinedu Christopher Obieze

Affiliation:

• Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Science, University of Port Harcourt, East- West Road, Choba,Nigeria

Keywords: Hydrocarbon utilizing fungi, molecular fingerprinting, crude oil pollution, bioremediation, diversity, nutrients.

Abstract: Background: The design of microbial mediated remediation strategies for hydrocarbon polluted sites requires understanding of the microbial community structure pre and post contamination. This research is focused on investigating fungal community succession before and after crude oil contamination and nutrient amendment.

Objective: To examine fungal community response to crude oil contamination, following biostimulation with various organic and inorganic nutrients.

Method: A portion of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) gene sequence of the total soil fungal DNA extracted from each treatment was subjected to polymerase chain reaction using the primer pair ITS1 and ITS4. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis of the ITS-PCR amplicons was done to elucidate community succession and diversity of fungal species associated with crude oil degradation.

Results: Sequencing of excised bands and pairwise comparison using BLAST showed close affiliation of the ITS sequences with Diutina catenulata, Trichosporon asahii, T. posorum, T. japonicum, T. coremiiforme, Candida sp., Candida neorugosa, Candida rugosa, Meyerozyma guilliermondii, Candida sp., Geomyces destructans, Exophiala sp., Aphelenchoides arachidis and several uncultured fungal clones. The percentage similarity of the recovered fungal isolates with those deposited in GenBank ranged from 85%-100% indicating the presence of some well-established hydrocarbon degraders and some potential novel fungal species. As natural attenuation progressed following nutrient amendments, there was a shift in dominance of the samples from mostly uncultured fungal species to dominance by fungal species that have previously been implicated in hydrocarbons degradation.

Conclusion: This report on fungal dynamics during bioremediation will be vital in designing environmental recovery strategies for crude oil polluted sites.

Cite this article as:

Chikere Blaise Chioma *, Obieze Christopher Chinedu , Fungal Diversity and Dynamics During Bioremediation of Crude Oilpolluted Soil, Current Biotechnology 2018; 7 (2) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/2211550106666170321105848