Department of Chemistry, Manipal University, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India; Centre for Converging Technology, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, India.
Centre for Converging Technology, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, India; Department of Zoology, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, India.
Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 2016 Feb;124:186-192. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2015.10.022. Epub 2015 Nov 2.
The science of Geomicrobiology, which deals with mineral- microbe interaction in nature contributes effectively to three important processes namely- mineral and metal bioremediation, biomining and soil mineral formation by microbes. Bioremediation one of the important process of the above, degrades or transforms hazardous contaminants to less toxic compounds. Several groups of fungi have proved highly efficient in this aspect, with asbestos being one such toxic entity in the environment on which their activity was studied. The present investigation uses the same tool as a device for detoxifying asbestos, a potent carcinogenic entity; with fungal isolates native to the asbestos mines of Rajasthan, India, being investigated for the first time. The cellular mechanism of asbestos toxicity is mainly attributed to the presence of iron in its chemical composition which catalyzes generation of free radicals leading to oxidation of biomolecules. The two dominant novel species found therein, identified as Aspergillus tubingenesis and Coemansia reversa have proved capable of actively removing iron from asbestos fibers as studied by scanning electron microscopy- electron diffraction X-ray (SEM-EDX) analysis. This probably could lead to a reduction in toxicity of asbestos, due to reduced iron concentration as reported in related studies. Many fungi are known to release iron chelating compounds, siderophores, which could be instrumental in the study. The findings related to two new fungal species being added to the list of earlier identified fungal bioremediators of asbestos, widens the prospect of using bioremediation as an effective tool for asbestos detoxification.
研究微生物与矿物相互作用的地质微生物学有效地促进了三个重要过程，即矿物和金属的生物修复、生物采矿和微生物形成土壤矿物。生物修复是上述过程中的重要过程之一，它可将有害污染物降解或转化为毒性较低的化合物。有几类真菌已被证明在这方面非常有效，石棉就是环境中一种毒性很强的实体，对其活性进行了研究。本研究使用相同的工具作为一种解毒石棉的设备，石棉是一种潜在的致癌实体；首次研究了印度拉贾斯坦邦石棉矿的本土真菌分离物。石棉毒性的细胞机制主要归因于其化学成分中存在铁，铁催化自由基的生成，导致生物分子氧化。通过扫描电子显微镜-电子衍射 X 射线（SEM-EDX）分析发现，其中两种占主导地位的新型物种被鉴定为里氏木霉和反向科曼西亚菌，它们能够从石棉纤维中主动去除铁。由于相关研究报告铁浓度降低，这可能会降低石棉的毒性。许多真菌被发现会释放铁螯合化合物，即铁载体，这在研究中可能是有用的。将两种新真菌物种添加到以前确定的石棉生物修复真菌清单中的发现，拓宽了将生物修复作为石棉解毒的有效工具的前景。
