Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi I'm a ninth grader, and as part of our Biology with Research class, we are required to sign up for the county science fair. My group and I have decided to study the use of white rot fungi to degrade oil spills. there's just one problem, we're not sure where to get our hands on a culture of white rot fungus. We have until February 2017 to finish our project, and we were wondering if that was enough time to grow culture of fungus and be able to test it. We read in some of the previous posts that white rot fungus can be obtained from rotting apples, but we're not sure if this is true. Any help you could give us would be much appreciated. Thank you!

-AAA

Hi crescentcavae,

Thanks for using our forum!

So I think you want Phanerochaete chrysosporium specifically. It digests rotting wood, so perhaps your group could go on a field trip and see if you can find some!

Below are some references to help you identify what you're looking for and explain how to culture it:

http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/may97.html
https://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.ph ... ysosporium
http://genome.jgi.doe.gov/Phchr1/Phchr1.home.html
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl ... 7-0170.pdf

Hope this helps!

Peter S.

Hi crescentcavae,

Adding onto what pswiatko said, the genera of white rot fungi capable of bioremediation (such as breaking down oil), include: Phanerochaete, Trametes, Bjerkandera, and Pleurotus. White rot fungi is indeed found in the woods, however, when its bioremediation abilities are tested in the laboratory, scientists often use pure enzymes. White rot wood is able to breakdown hydrocarbons such as oils because of its enzymes lignin peroxidase, manganese, dependent peroxidase, and laccase. Using pure enzymes may be simpler and easier than trying to find a sample of white rot: I suggest buying laccase (an enzyme in white rot that can decay petroleum) and create an experiment around this. Laccase is a relatively common enzyme in the laboratory, and you can purchase it for a low price at this website: https://www.alibaba.com/showroom/laccase.html One idea for an experiment you could do with the white rot enzyme laccase is at what conditions (temperature/pH) is the function of laccase on petroleum most effective. Or perhaps you could compare the ability of the laccase enzyme to degrade oil versus the ability of other enzymes that may degrade oil.

Good luck with this fascinating and very applicable experiment!

~Catherine M.