Fungal biofilms: upgrading the performance of biodegraders

摘要

Fundamental limitations of any bioremediation are the effect of environmental (stress) conditions, cytotoxicity of pollutants and slow mass transfer of hydrophobic compounds to the degrading microorganism. Therefore, efforts are focused on optimizing technological applications of microbial degraders by modulating their susceptibility as well as by enhancing their accessibility to poorly soluble compounds. A new approach that does cope with these requirements is the biofilm based reactors and an application of additives increasing the pollutant bioavailability. Using different techniques, we have compared the phenotypes of suspended and attached fungal biodegraders, investigating a wide range of technologically significant markers. The results obtained revealed that the cell attachment of fungal degrader brings significant increase of cell tolerance to environmental stressors and pollutants damaging cell structures. Moreover, the contribution deals with the capacity of humic acids to enhance the capability of yeast populations to degrade polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.