Widespread of heavy metals contamination has led to several environmental problems. Some biological methods to remove heavy metals from contaminated wastewater are being widely explored. In the present study, the efficiency of a white‐rot fungus, Phlebia brevispora to remove different metals (Pb, Cd and Ni) has been evaluated. Atomic absorption spectroscopy of treated and untreated metal containing water revealed that all the metals were efficiently removed by the fungus. Among all the used metals, cadmium was the most toxic metal for fungal growth. Phlebia brevispora removed maximum Pb (97·5%) from 100 mmol l−1 Pb solution, which was closely followed by Cd (91·6%) and Ni (72·7%). Scanning electron microscopic images revealed that the presence of metal altered the morphology and fine texture of fungal hyphae. However, the attachment of metal on mycelia surface was not observed during energy‐dispersive X‐ray analysis, which points towards the intracellular compartmentation of metals in vacuoles. Thus, the study demonstrated an application of P. brevispora for efficient removal of Pb, Cd and Ni from the metal contaminated water, which can further be applied for bioremediation of heavy metals present in the industrial effluent.

中文翻译：

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白腐菌Phlebia brevispora的铅镉镍去除效率

重金属污染的广泛传播导致了一些环境问题。一些从受污染废水中去除重金属的生物方法正在被广泛探索。在本研究中，评估了白腐真菌 Phlebia brevispora 去除不同金属（Pb、Cd 和 Ni）的效率。经处理和未经处理的含水金属的原子吸收光谱显示，所有金属都被真菌有效去除。在所有使用的金属中，镉是对真菌生长毒性最大的金属。Phlebia brevispora 从 100 mmol l-1 Pb 溶液中去除了最大的 Pb (97·5%)，紧随其后的是 Cd (91·6%) 和 Ni (72·7%)。扫描电子显微镜图像显示金属的存在改变了真菌菌丝的形态和精细质地。然而，在能量色散 X 射线分析中没有观察到金属在菌丝体表面的附着，这表明金属在液泡中的细胞内分隔。因此，该研究证明了短孢假单胞菌在有效去除金属污染水中的 Pb、Cd 和 Ni 方面的应用，可进一步应用于工业废水中重金属的生物修复。