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- Title
The biotransformation of mercury in pH-stat cultures of microfungi.
- Authors
Budd, Kenneth; Lefebvre, Daniel D.; Kelly, David J. A.
- Abstract
The biotransformation of mercury was monitored in Hymenoscyphus ericae (Read) Korf & Kernan, Neocosmospora vasinfecta E. F. Sm., and Verticillium terrestre (Link) Lindau following the exposure of these fungi to environmentally relevant doses of HgII (HgCl2) in aerated pH-controlled cultures. Mercury applied at 120 and 300 μg·L–1 quickly associated with cells of N. vasinfecta. Within 3 h, approximately 80% of the remaining Hg in both treatments had been converted to β-HgS, and at 8 h, 15% and 53% of the original doses had been converted into volatile Hg0. Hymenoscyphus ericae was less efficient at converting HgII to β-HgS, but it volatilized larger amounts of Hg0. A mercury-tolerant isolate of V. terrestre withstood levels of Hg in the parts per million. When exposed to 270, 1000, or 2000 μg·L–1 HgCl2, 93% 3% of the amounts remaining in cultures of V. terrestre after 2 h was β-HgS. At 2 mg·L–1, 72% of the Hg was reduced to Hg0 in 2 h. Volatilization accounts for the tolerance of V. terrestre to high doses of Hg, whereas the conversion of Hg to β-HgS was the major detoxifying mechanism at lower doses. The formation of β-HgS occurs preferentially with volatilization operating as the default pathway, when the former biotransformation mechanism is saturated.
- Subjects
MERCURY; BIOTRANSFORMATION (Metabolism); MICROFUNGI; NEOCOSMOSPORA vasinfecta; VERTICILLIUM; FUNGI; CELLS; MICROORGANISMS; EARTH sciences
- Publication
Canadian Journal of Botany, 2006, Vol 84, Issue 2, p254
- ISSN
0008-4026
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1139/B05-156