Interaction of uranium with Pleurotus sp.

Abstract

Uptake of uranium by higher fungi, such as mushroom is little elucidated. We have studied the interaction of uranium with Pleurotus sp. (a mushroom) in pure culture over a wide range of U concentration (50-3000 mg/L). The Pleurotus sp. was cultured in two different media. One was rice bran medium, and the other was agar (yeast extract, peptone and dextrose) medium. The uptake of uranium in Pleurotus sp. was examined by alpha ray autoradiography (AA), X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF) and scanning microcopy (SEM) equipped with EDS.In the agar medium, the higher uranium concentration gave lower growth of mycelia, and no fruiting body was observed. In the rice bran medium, the fruiting body was grown at U concentrations up to 1000 mg/L. The AA and XRF analysis showed that uranium taken up in the fruiting body was below, the detection limit. The SEM-EDS analysis indicated that U was distributed in the limited region and was not transported to the mycelia far from U containing medium. It is concluded that uranium affects the growth of Pleurotus sp., and little uranium is taken up by Pleurotus sp. during the growth of both mycelia and fruiting body.