Abstract
Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) belong to the most widely used nanoparticles in both commercial products and industrial applications. Hence, they are frequently released into the environment. Soil fungi can affect the mobilization of zinc from ZnO NPs in soils, and thus they can heavily influence the mobility and bioavailability of zinc there. Therefore, ubiquitous soil fungus Aspergillus niger was selected as a test organism to evaluate the fungal interaction with ZnO NPs. As anticipated, the A. niger strain significantly affected the stability of particulate forms of ZnO due to the acidification of its environment. The influence of ZnO NPs on fungus was compared to the aqueous Zn cations and to bulk ZnO as well. Bulk ZnO had the least effect on fungal growth, while the response of A. niger to ZnO NPs was comparable with ionic zinc. Our results have shown that soil fungus can efficiently bioaccumulate Zn that was bioextracted from ZnO. Furthermore, it influences Zn bioavailability to plants by ZnO NPs transformation to stable biogenic minerals. Hence, a newly formed biogenic mineral phase of zinc oxalate was identified after the experiment with A. niger strain’s extracellular metabolites highlighting the fungal significance in zinc biogeochemistry.
Highlights
Engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) have been increasingly used in diverse applications concerning renewable energy, electronics, material science, medicine, and agriculture [1]
Release to the environment greatly raises the environmental risks in both frequency and severity [2]. This is especially true for soils and sediments, which represent the major sinks for released ENP
There, the mobility and transformation of ENP are strongly influenced by biogeochemical processes and, they have been increasingly studied in the last two decades [3,4]
Summary
Engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) have been increasingly used in diverse applications concerning renewable energy, electronics, material science, medicine, and agriculture [1]. Release to the environment greatly raises the environmental risks in both frequency and severity [2] This is especially true for soils and sediments, which represent the major sinks for released ENP. There, the mobility and transformation of ENP are strongly influenced by biogeochemical processes and, they have been increasingly studied in the last two decades [3,4]. This includes zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) of which, by estimate, up to 8.7 kt end up in soils annually [5].
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