Peculiarities of metabolism of anthracene and pyrene by laccase-producing fungus Pycnoporus sanguineus H1.

The metabolic peculiarities of anthracene and pyrene by Pycnoporus sanguineus H1 were investigated. The fungus H1 could grow on potato dextrose agar plates with anthracene and anthraquinone as carbon sources. In liquid medium, the strain degraded 8.5% of anthracene as the sole carbon source, with no ligninolytic enzymes detected, indicating that intracellular catabolic enzymes might be responsible for the initial oxidation of anthracene. When bran was added to the medium, the degradation rate of anthracene and pyrene increased to 71.3% and 30.2%, respectively, and the laccase activities increased to a maximal value of 501.2 and 587.6 U/L, respectively. By gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis, anthraquinone was detected as the unique intermediate product of anthracene oxidation, with a yield molar ratio of 0.3. In vitro experiments showed that the extracellular culture fluid containing laccase transformed anthracene to anthraquinone with a yield molar ratio of 1.0, which was less than that of the in vivo experiment, indicating that anthraquinone could be further metabolized by the strain. Pyrene could not be oxidized by culture fluid. These results showed that both extracellular laccase and intracellular catabolic enzymes might play an important role in the initial oxidation of anthracene, whereas pyrene could be only oxidized by intracellular catabolic enzymes through cometabolism.