HEAVY METAL TOLERANCE POTENTIAL OF FUNGUS ISOLATED FROM COPPER SMELTING INDUSTRY

Abstract

This study investigates the tolerance potential of different species of indigenous fungi that isolated from solid waste at copper smelting industry. The
heavy metals concentration in the solid waste was characterized by using Atomic Absorption spectroscopy. The concentration of heavy metal in the
solid waste from copper smelting industry was found to be 220 ppm of copper (Cu) and 43 ppm of Iron (Fe). Two different species of fungi such as
Coprinellus xanthothrix and Alternaria tenuissima were isolated from this copper contaminated sample using dilution techniques. They were screened
for their resistance to copper (Cu) in potato dextrose agar plates amended with various concentrations ranging from 50-250 ppm of Cu. The isolates
were resistant to Cu, among these strain Coprinellus xanthothrix was the most tolerant against the tested heavy metal at higher concentration, shows
the tolerance index of 1, 0.738, 0.7, 0.355 and 0.288 and the species Alternaria tenuissima exhibit 1, 0.78, 0.59, 0.56 and 0.21 respectively. The
isolate Coprinellus xanthothrix exhibit higher colony diameter and better growth phase for 50-200 ppm of Cu, while compared to the isolate
Alternaria tenuissima. The results revealed that these initial adaptive behaviors are reflections of the strains tolerance development with increasing
metal concentration