Metal capture by autochthonous yeasts from a volcanic influenced environment of Patagonia.

RUSSO GA; LIBKIND D; GIRAUDO MR; DELGADO OD

JOURNAL OF BASIC MICROBIOLOGY

WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH

Lugar: Weinheim; Año: 2016 vol. 56 p. 1203 - 1211

0233-111X

Metals at elevated concentrations are a majorthreat to agricultural and human health. Typically, human activities tend torelease these metals to the environment in aqueous solutions, generating highlevels of pollution due to the mobility of the metals. The ability of threeyeast species, Cryptococcus agrionensis, Cryptococcus sp. 2 and Coniochaetafodinicola, to tolerate and capture metals in live cultures has beenevaluated. These three yeast species showed high tolerance to low pH andelevated concentrations of metals, thus implying their autochthonous status.Minimal inhibitory concentration for growth obtained for these isolates showedelevated tolerance to the six metals evaluated and were significantly higherthan those registered for other microorganisms. Cryptococcus agrionensiswas able to capture 15.80 mg (g biomass)-1 of Cu2+, Cryptococcussp. 2 was able to capture 36.25 and 65.28 mg (g biomass)-1 of Ni2+and Zn2+ respectively, and C. fodinicola was able to capture67.11 mg (g biomass)-1 of Zn2+. This work represents thefirst assessment of metal capture by autochthonous acidic aquatic environmentyeast species.