Effect of Cadmium, Cobalt, and Chromium on Growth of Three Cunninghamella Species 359

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provided by Elsevier - Publisher Connector Journal of Saudi Chemical Society (2011) 15, 357–359

King Saud University Journal of Saudi Chemical Society

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ORIGINAL ARTICLE Eﬀect of cadmium, cobalt, and chromium on growth of three Cunninghamella species

E.H. Mattar a, L.F. Hammad a, M.E. Zain b,*

a Radiologic Sciences Dept., College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia b Medical Laboratory Sciences Dept., College of Applied Medical Sciences, Al-Kharj University, Saudi Arabia

Available online 14 April 2011

KEYWORDS Abstract The ability of three fungal species, Cunninghamella blakesleeana, Cunninghamella homo- Cadmium; thallica, and Cunninghamella elegans to grow in the presence of different concentrations of radioac- Cobalt; tive elements: cadmium, cobalt, and chromium was determined. The results revealed that the genus Chromium; Cunninghamella were able to grow in a relatively high concentration of radioactive elements and Cunninghamella could be used in the absorption of radioactive elements from contaminated liquids. ª 2011 King Saud University. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.

1. Introduction through the increase in nuclear activities and wide application of radionuclides. Radioactivity has always been part of the natural environ- On the other hand, cadmium (Cd) is a widely-distributed ment. An example of natural radioactivity is the cosmic radia- industrial and environmental pollutant that currently ranks tion that constantly strikes the Earth and the naturally 8th on the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry occurring radioactive materials (NORM) (IAEA, 2003). This Priority List of Hazardous Substances (ATSDR, 2005). source causes the background radiation which has little effect Depending on the dose, route and duration of exposure, Cd on most people. However, humans had introduced a consider- can damage various organs including the kidney, lung, liver able amount of additional radiation into the environment and testis (Elinder and Kjellstrom, 1986; Jarup et al., 1998). In addition, Cd has teratogenic and carcinogenic activities * Corresponding author. Tel.: +966 564306152. (Degraeve, 1981; IARC, 1993). Considerable evidence suggests E-mail address: [email protected] (M.E. Zain). that many of the effects of Cd in the body involve actions on the vascular endothelium (Nolan and Shaikh, 1986; Prozialeck 1319-6103 ª 2011 King Saud University. Production and hosting by et al., 2006). Elsevier B.V. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license. In addition, chromium (Cr) has been identified by US Envi- ronmental Protection Agency (USEPA, 1998) as one of the 17 Peer review under responsibility of King Saud University. toxic metals/metalloids posing major hazard in environment. doi:10.1016/j.jscs.2011.04.003 This transition metal is widely found in nature in different valence states as Cr(VI) to Cr(III) forms. Among these Cr(VI) is Production and hosting by Elsevier highly soluble, thus mobile and biologically available in the ecosystems and thus exerts toxicity; whereas Cr(III) forms 358 E.H. Mattar et al. complexes that precipitate as amorphous hydroxide (Palmer Table 1 Effect of cadmium ions on fungal growth. and Wittbrodt, 1991; Sawyer et al., 1994). The toxic form of Cr is released in environment with efflu- Cadmium Cunninghamella Cunninghamella Cunninghamella ents from different industries (Bailar, 1997; USEPA, 1998; concentration blakesleeana homothallica celegans Abdel-Sabour, 2007). The technologies for Cr clean-up from (ppm) the contaminated sites consist mostly of (i) removing the max- 100 +ve +ve +ve imum Cr(VI)-contaminated parts from the site; (ii) immobiliz- 200 +ve +ve +ve ing the chromium to prevent further leaching; or (iii) reducing 300 +ve +ve +ve the Cr(VI) to its non-toxic species, i.e., Cr(III) state. Microbial 400 +ve +ve +ve 500 +ve +ve +ve reduction of toxic Cr(VI) has practical importance in this re- 600 +ve +ve +ve spect, because biological strategies provide cost-effective and 800 +ve +ve +ve ecofriendly technology (Eccles, 1995). 1000 +ve +ve +ve Another immediate environmental problem is the disposal 1500 Àve +ve +ve of nuclear wastes. Some radioactive substances have a half-life 2000 Àve Àve Àve of more than 10,000 years, which means that, they will remain radioactive and highly dangerous for many thousands of years. Even temporary storage of these wastes is a dangerous problem (Belli and Tikhomirov, 1996). The anthropogenic sources of heavy metals included wastes from the electroplating and metal finishing industries, metal- Table 2 Effect of cobalt ions on fungal growth. lurgical industries, tannery operations, chemical manufactur- Cadmium Cunninghamella Cunninghamella Cunninghamella ing, mine drainage, battery manufacturing, leather tanning concentration blakesleeana homothallica elegans industries, fertilizer industries and pigment manufacturing (ppm) industries (Faisal and Hasnain, 2004). Heavy metals were also 100 +ve +ve +ve emitted from resource recovery plants in relatively high levels 200 +ve +ve +ve on fly ash particles (Neal et al., 1990). 300 Àve +ve +ve The vision of our work was to investigate the ability of 400 Àve Àve +ve three Cunninghamella species to grow in high concentrations 500 Àve Àve Àve of cadmium, cobalt and chromium and subsequently, the effi- 600 Àve Àve Àve cacy of those species in the removal of these toxic metals from 800 Àve Àve Àve the environment. 1000 Àve Àve Àve 1500 Àve Àve Àve 2000 ve ve ve 2. Material and methods À À À

2.1. Fungal isolates 3.1. Fungal growth at different concentrations of cadmium ions The investigated fungi; Cunninghamella blakesleeana Lendner (DSM 1906), Cunninghamella homothallica Kominami & Tu- The growth of fungal strains on Sabouraud’s dextrose agar med- baki (DSM 1156), and Cunninghamella elegans Lendner ium supplemented with different cadmium ions concentrations; (DSM 1908) were obtained from DSMZ (German Collection 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 800, 1000, 1500 and 2000 ppm was of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures). The direct inoculation observed after seven days of incubation at 28 ± 2 C(Table 1). method was used for sampling and isolation of fungal isolates. The results revealed that the investigated Cunninghamella species were able to grow and tolerate Cd(II) till 1000 ppm. How- 2.2. Media and chemicals ever, both C. homothallica and C. elegans were able to grow in the presence of 1500 ppm. There was no growth at all in the pres- Sabouraud’s dextrose agar medium was supplemented with ence of 2000 ppm. The fungal growth rate was decreased with different concentrations of cobalt chloride, potassium dichro- the increase of metal ion concentrations (Table 1). mate, and cadmium chloride. Cobalt chloride (CoCl2), Potas- sium dichromate (K2Cr2O7), cadmium chloride (CdCl2) were 3.2. Fungal growth at different concentrations of cobalt ions of analytical purity grade. The growth of fungal strains on Sabouraud’s dextrose agar 3. Results medium supplemented with different cobalt ions concentrations; 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 800, 1000, 1500 and Three Cunninghamella species; namely, Cunninghamella blakes- 2000 ppm was observed after seven days of incubation at leeana, C. homothallica,andC. elegans were grown on Sabou- 28 ± 2 C(Table 2). The results revealed that the investigated raud’s dextrose agar medium separately supplemented with Cunninghamella species were able to grow and tolerate Co(II) different concentrations of cobalt, chromium and cadmium ions. at and 200 ppm. However, both C. homothallica and C. elegans This study determines the toxic concentrations of each me- were able to grow in the presence of 300 ppm. Only C. elegans tal ions, the resistance of each studied fungi and the effect of was able to grow in the presence of 400 ppm. There was no their tolerance on the amount of metal ion accumulated. growth at concentration 500 ppm or higher (Table 2). Effect of cadmium, cobalt, and chromium on growth of three Cunninghamella species 359

Table 3 Effect of chromium ions on fungal growth. References

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