ISOLATION OF A CADMIUM TOLERANT CURVULARIA SP. FROM POLLUTED EFFLUENTS

摘要

A fungus exhibiting high level of tolerance to cadmium was isolated from polluted effluents byselection on cadmium-containing agar medium. The fungus, identified as Curvularia lunata, showed igh tolerance towards cadmium in both solid and liquid media (I-50 30-60 mM). The mechanism of tolerance is shown to be due to most of cadmium (90%) being accumulated on mycelial surface, extractable by EDTA. Metal-chelate affinity chromatography of cell-free extracts showed that most of the cadmium was in ionic form, not associated with any specific proteins. Biosorbent prepared by alkali extraction of mycelia of Curvularia bound metal ions up to 6% of biosorbent (w/w). [References: 20]