Biodegradation of diuron in artificially contaminated water and seawater by wood colonized with the white-rot fungus Trametes versicolor

• Published in: Journal of wood science 2018-10, Vol.64 (5), p.690-696
• Main Authors: Mori, Toshio, Sudo, Shiho, Kawagishi, Hirokazu, Hirai, Hirofumi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biomedical and Life Sciences; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Life Sciences; Materials Science; Original Article; Wood Science & Technology
• ISSN: 1435-0211; 1611-4663
• DOI: 10.1007/s10086-018-1740-x

We investigated the potential of white-rot fungi for bioremediation of aqueous environments contaminated with diuron (3-(3,4-dichlorophenyl)-1,1-dimethylurea). First, diuron degradation activities of several white-rot fungi ( Ceriporia lacerata, Phanerochaete chrysosporium, Phanerochaete sordida, Trametes versicolor ) and a brown-rot fungus ( Gloeophyllum trabeum ) were evaluated under low- or high-nitrogen conditions. While G. trabeum showed hardly any degradation activity, white-rot fungi except for C. lacerata showed degradation activity, at least under some conditions. In particular, the activity of T. versicolor was high regardless of culture conditions (30–35% degradation at both levels of nitrogen). T. versicolor degraded diuron to two metabolites, 1-(3,4-dichlorophenyl)-3-methylurea and 1-(3,4-dichlorophenyl)urea, and did not accumulate the highly toxic metabolite 3,4-dichloroaniline. Moreover, the diuron content of artificially contaminated water dramatically decreased from 1.0 to 0.012 µM and artificially contaminated seawater (3.4% sea salt, w/v) decreased to 0.405 µM after incubation for 2 weeks with shaking on T. versicolor -colonized wood medium. These results indicated that wood medium colonized with white-rot fungi may be applicable for bioremediation and detoxification of diuron-contaminated aqueous environments.