Utilization potential of Pleurotus pulmonarius LAU09 (JF736658) on Crude oil contaminated Substrate

Abstract

White-rot fungi remain dynamic to an extensive series of materials using their extra-cellular lignin-modifying enzymes that has a low substrate-specificity. This study is aimed at evaluating the ability of Pleurotus pulmonarius LAU09 (JF736658) to biodegrade and utilize crude oil contaminated substrate. Substrates for mushroom cultivation were prepared by mixing sawdust, CaCO3, NPK fertilizer and wheat bran at ratio of 200:1:2:3 for each crude oil concentration (0.4%, 0.8%, 1.2%, 1.6%, and 2%) used. A significant difference was observed in the Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons (TPH) of the substrates at different crude oil concentrations with progressing incubation days. In 0.4% crude oil-supplemented substrate, the residual TPH at day 0 (96.63%) decreased gradually with progressed incubation time, having a TPH value of 75.47% at day 7, 54.83% and 35.27% at days 21 and 60 respectively; with a total TPH loss of 63.5 %; in 2.0 % however, the percentage fruit yield was 0. The pileus diameter of fruits ranged between 5.933 to 8.067cm while the fresh weight of the fruits was between 3.133 and 4.767g. Each heavy metal analysed at different concentration of crude oil in substrates showed varied degradation rate and different bioaccumulation rate was also observed in the fruit bodies. Lead content in the fruiting body harvested increased with increase in crude oil supplementation; P. pulmonarius LAU09 was able to attain a reasonable degree of degradation of oil at lower concentrations. This study shows the potential of P. pulmonarius cultivation to utilize and biodegrade crude oil contaminated soil.