Adaptation of Selected Ectomycorrhizal Fungi to Increased Concentration of Cadmium and Lead

Plants together with water and minerals actively take from the soil heavy metals such as cadmium and lead. The negative role of ions of these metals on plant growth and development depends not only on their concentration in the soil, but also on a number of factors that may affect the transport of minerals from the soil to the roots. The harmful effects of xenobiotics getting from the soil to the plants are limited by the organic compounds contained in the soil, soil structure and pH. Particularly noteworthy are biotic factors, such as bacteria and fungi which greatly limit the translocation of heavy metals. Stream of new scientific reports show that the symbiotic combination of fungi with plant roots so called mycorrhizae is a factor that may be important in reducing the impact of soil contamination by heavy metals. Mycorrhiza by filtering solutions of water and mineral salts stop a considerable amount of heavy metals in the internal mycelium or on its surface. It was proved that plants with properly formed mycorrhiza grow better in hard to renew lands, such as salty, sterile soils contaminated with industrial waste. Questions to which answer was sought in this study are: 1) whether mycorrhizal fungi for many years growing in the contaminated areas have managed to adapt to these adverse conditions and 2) do the same species derived from clean areas are less resistant to contamination by heavy metals? Stated problems tried to be solved based on the fruiting bodies of fungi collected from ectomycorrhizal fungi picked from the areas contaminated by industrial emissions and areas free of contamination. The interaction of cadmium and lead ions on the growth of mycelium was examined by plate method and binding of heavy metals in fruiting structures of fungi were done by colorimetric method with use of methylene blue. It has been shown that the fungal resistance, even of the same species, to high concentration of heavy metals varies depending on the origin of symbiont. Isolated fungi from contaminated areas are better adapted to high concentrations of xenobiotics. Ability to bind cadmium and lead to fruiting bodies of fungi varies.