Assessing copper tolerance of Isolated fungal species from copper pyrite materials from Kasese, Uganda.

Abstract

Rapidly increased mining has resulted in greater discharge of hazardous chemicals in the soil. In this current study, soil samples were collected from Kilembe mines in Kasese and subjected to heavy metal analysis and microbe isolation. A total of 4 copper tolerant fungi was isolated from the contaminated mined soil and characterized. These include Aspergillus flavus, Penicillium marneffei, Saccharomyces cerevisisiae and Acremonium falciforme which was the most tolerance species. Morphological characterization of isolated fungi was then performed and the metal tolerance of the various strains was determined by measuring the metal tolerance index(MTI) values of all the tested strains against copper. These findings help us to find a novel strain of fungi that can be suggested to be the potential mycoremediation microbe to alleviate the contamination of copper polluted soils. Future studies of Acremonium falciforme can therefore help us to understand its resistance mechanism against other heavy metals, too.