Bioremediation of an aged polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)-contaminated soil by filamentous fungi isolated from the soil

Twenty-one filamentous fungi were isolated from the soil of an old polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)-contaminated gaswork site and tested in their native soil for PAH degradation. This degradation study was performed for each isolate with two inoculation treatments, by spore or mycelial inoculum. An improvement in the extent of total PAH degradation occurred with mycelial inoculum. The greatest degradation was obtained with Coniothyrium sp. (26.5%) and Fusarium sp. (27.5%) inoculum, especially for PAHs of high-molecular-weight that contained more than three fused aromatic rings. Correlations between mycobiota capacity (in treatments inoculated with mycelium) and PAH characteristics (structure, water solubility, bioavaibility) were obtained from correspondence factorial analysis. This study suggests that such filamentous fungi could be used in clean-up of long-term contamination of soils by PAHs. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.