The use of lignin-degrading fungi to treat soil contaminationhas been shown to offer strong potential as a bioremediation technology (Paszczynski, & Crawford, 1995). For the proper application of fungal bioremediation, it is important to accurately determine the fungal activity and its distribution throughout a remediation site at different stages of biodegradation. Numerious methods have been explored to measure fungal biomass. Ergosterol, the predominant sterol of most fungi, has been a fairly good indicator for determining fungal biomass especially in soil, without the interference of prokaryotes (Newell, 1992). However, there are certain downfalls in using ergosterol as a biomass indicator (Bermingham et al, 1995). Ergosterol is also common to other soil fungi other than the remediation inoculum and its concentration could vary with the fungal life cycle. Furthermore, it is important to undestand any biosynthetic inhibition of ergosterol present in targeted contaminated soils which may limit its utility for the purposes stipulated above (Barrett-Bee & Ryder, 1992). In this stuedy we have attempted to determine the level of ergosterol produced over a period of time by lignin-degrading fungi that have been main bioremediation candidates and also compare their ergosterol levels to other soil fungi that may pose as an interference.
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