Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 9.1
Comparison of fungal species in the roots of
Amaranthus retroflexus
plant in polluted
and non-polluted areas
Fungi in non-polluted area
Fungi in petroleum polluted area
Alternaria, Penicillium, Rhizoctonia
Alternaria, Fusarium acuminatum, F. equisetti,
F. reticulatum, Penicillium, Rhizoctonia
Table 9.2
Growth ability of rhizospheral fungi in PDA containing crude oil. (Data expressed as
diameter of colony-mm)
Oil treatment
Microorganism
Non-contaminated
(control)
1 % Oil
4 % Oil
10 % Oil
Alternaria
49 ± 6
28 ± 8*
18 ± 6*
14 ± 4*
Fusarium acuminatum
34 ± 5
42 ± 10.3
50 ± 10
48 ± 12
F. equiseti
12 ± 2
46 ± 4*
63 ± 4*
85 ± 8*
F. reticulatum
33 ± 9
45 ± 6
61 ± 7
55 ± 5
Penicillium
40 ± 5
30 ± 4
24 ± 4
11 ± 2
Rhizoctonia
88 ± 1.2
67 ± 9*
42 ± 3*
18 ± 5*
Each data represents the mean ± SE of 3-5 samples
*Data significantly different from the control (
p
≤ 0.05)
For statistical evaluation between the experimental groups and control, analysis
of variance (ANOVA) followed by the least significant difference test (LSD) were
performed between studied groups (Chehregani et al.
2005
). Each data was repre-
sented as mean ± SD of five samples for experimental groups and also 5 for control.
1.6 Evaluation
The rhizospheric fungi of
A. retroflexus
were collected, isolated and identified by
morphological characters and taxonomical keys (Table
9.1
). The results of the iden-
tification of plants root associated fungi showed the presence of 6 fungal species
in the roots of this plant collected from the petroleum polluted soils. These were;
Alternaria sp., Fusarium acuminatum, F. equisetti, F.reticulatum, Penicillinium sp.,
Rhizoctonia sp.
Only three of these were found to be associated with the roots of the
plants in non-polluted soils namely;
Alternaria sp., Penicillinium sp., Rhizoctonia
sp.
The studied plants had different fungal population as their root association and
only three fungal species were common in the roots of all plants in both polluted and
non-polluted areas (Table
9.1
).
The growth activity of 6 fungal strains was carried out under different concentra-
tions of crude oil and was expressed as the diameter of the colony (Table
9.2
). The
results showed that all the studied fungi were more or less resistant to petroleum pol-
lution and they made a sufficient colony in 1 % crude oil concentration; but only some
of them save their growth activity in 10 % petroleum pollution. Among the studied
fungi,
Fusarium equiseti, F. reticulatum
and
F.cuminatum
had the highest resistance to
petroleum (with 48 and 55 mm diameter of colony) and
Penicillium sp.
was the most
sensitive one (with 11 mm diameter of colony) in the 10 % petroleum polluted PDA.
