• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.292-295
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• 2002

A chromate-resistant white rot fungus, Inonotus cuticularis, abundant in oak trees, was isolated for chromate removal and detoxification of chromate. Inonotus cuticularis was also investigated for an optimal waste treatment system. The screened cells were able to reduce an initial chromate concentration of as high as 1,300 ppm. Cell growth kinetics showed that the optimum culture conditions in flasks were at $33^{\circ}C$ and pH 4.2. Furthermore, the cells were able to remove $54\%$ of the initial chromate by a two-stage operation based on the combination of a fermentor and airlift reactor.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.63-72
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• 1998

In order to evaluate the biodegradability and mechanism of 4,5,6-trichloroguaiacol (TCG) produced from bleaching process in pulp mill by Phanerochaete chrysosporium, Trametes versicolor, and Inonotus cuticularis, changes in TCG and its metabolites during biodegradation were analyzed by HPLC, and GC/MS spectrometry. By three fungi, the maximum biodegradability against TCG were very quickly reached, compared with other chlorinated aromatic compounds such as PCP. Within 24 hrs, T versicolor indicated up to 95% of TCG removal rate, and P. chrysosporium and I. cuticularis also showed more than 80%, and 90%, respectively. Particularly, in case of T. versicolor, the removal rate of TCG after 1 hr. incubation was reached to approximately 90%, implying very rapid metabolization of TCG. However, by analyzing the filtrates extracted from TCG containing culture by GC/MS, the major metabolites at initial stage of biodegradation were dimers, indicating that the added TCG monomers were quickly polymerized. The others were trichloroveratrole, dichloroguaiacol, and trichlorobenzoic acid, suggesting that TCG may be biodegraded by several sequential reactions such as polymerization, oxidation, methylation, dechlorination, and hydroxylation. In other experiments, the extracellular fluid which did not contain any fungal mycelia was used to evaluate the effect of mycelia on TCG biodegradation. The extracellular fluid of T. versicolor also biodegraded TCG up to 90% within 24hrs, but those of P. chrysosporium and I. cuticularis did not show any good biodegradability. T versicolor showed the highest value of laccase, and other two fungi indicated a little activity of lignin peroxidase (LiP) and manganese peroxidase (MnP). In addition, the laccase activity of T. versicolor was very linearly proportional to the removal rate of TCG during incubation, in other words, showing the induction effect against TCG. Consequently, the biodegradation of TCG was very dependent upon the activity of laccase.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.53-62
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• 1998

In this research, 7 species of white rot fungi were used for determining the resistance against pentachlorophenol (PCP). Three fungi with good PCP resistance were selected for evaluating the biodegradability, and biodegradation mechanism by HPLC and GC/MS spectrometry. Among 7 fungi, there were significant differences on PCP resistance on 4 different PCP concentrations. In the concentrations of 50 and 100ppm ($\mu$g of PCP per g of 2% malt extract agar), most fungi were easily able to grow, and well suited to newly PCP-added condition, but in that of more than 250ppm, the mycelia growths of Ganoderma lucidum 20435, G. lucidum 20432, Pleurotus ostreatus, and Daldinia concentrica were significantly inhibited or even stopped by the addition of PCP to the culture. However, Trametes versicolor, Phanerochaete chrysosporium, and Inonotus cuticularis still kept growing at 250ppm, indicating the potential utilization of wood rot fungi to high concentrated PCP biodegradation. Particularly, P. chrysosporium even showed very rapid growth rate at more than 500ppm of PCP concentration. Three selected fungi based on the above results showed an excellent biodegradability against PCP. P. chrysosporium degraded PCP up to 84% on the first day of incubation, and during 7 days, most of added PCP were degraded. T. versicolor also showed more than 90% of biodegradability at 7th day, and even though the initial stage of degradation was very slow, I. cuticularis has been approached to 90% at 21 st day after incubation with dense growing pattern of mycelia. Therefore, the PCP biodegradability was definitely dependent on the rapid suitability of fungi to newly PCP-added condition. In addition, the PCP biodegradation by filtrates of P. chrysosporium, T. versicolor, and I. cuticularis was very minimal or limited, suggesting that the extracellular enzyme system may be not so significantly related to the PCP biodegradation. Among the biodegradation metabolites of PCP, the most abundant one was pentachloroanisole which resulted in a little weaker toxicity than PCP, and others were tetrachlorophenol, tetrachloro-hydroquinone, benzoic acid, and salicylic acid, suggesting that PCP may be biodegraded by several sequential reactions such as methylation, radical-induced oxidation, dechlorination, and hydroxylation.