VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE FACULTY OF BIOTECHNOLOGY THESIS TITLE: ISOLATION OF ACIDOPHILIC AND ACID- TOLERANT FUNGI FROM DIVERSE ENVIRONMENTS IN VIETNAM Student : Nguyen Bao Ngoc Faculty : Biotechnology Supervisors : Nguyen Van Giang, Assoc. Vu Nguyen Thanh, Assoc. Hanoi, February 2021 COMMITMENT I hereby declare that: This is my study, which was conducted under the guidance of the supervisors; All data provided are true and accurate; All published data and information have been duly cited. Hanoi, February 2021 Student Nguyen Bao Ngoc i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Food Industries Research Institute (FIRI), especially to the Center for Industrial Microbiology for admitting and supporting me to conduct my thesis.
Besides, special thanks have to be given to the Department of Biotechnology, the Vietnam National University of Agriculture for teaching me the useful knowledge and experience to conduct this thesis. Secondly, I am grateful to my supervisors Assoc., Nguyen Van Giang for his priceless guidance and knowledge all the time. I should also state my gratitude to my major Assoc. Vu Nguyen Thanh for allowing me to conduct my project in FIRI and providing me with the logistic support and his valuable suggestion to carry out my research successfully.
Above ground, I am indebted to my family for their love, caring, understanding, supporting and sacrifices for educating and my future. Thank you very much! Nguyen Bao Ngoc ii TABLE OF CONTENTS COMMITMENT. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS. iii LIST OF TABLES .v LIST OF FIGURES.
Introduction of acidophilic fungi. Origin and characteristics of acidophilic fungi. Some representative group of acidophilic fungi Acidomyces acidophilus. Lignocellulose hydrolysis enzyme and enzyme from acid-tolerant fungi .1 Lignocellulose hydrolysis enzyme.
Enzyme from acidophilic fungi. Research on acidophilic fungi in the world and in Vietnam. Research on acidophilic fungi in the world. Research on acidophilic fungi in Vietnam.
MATERIALS AND METHODS. Chemicals, equipment and machines. Method of isolation. Purification and maintenance of strains.
Observation of colonies and cells. DNA extraction and purification method for mold cells. Methods of PCR fingerprinting (Maheshwari, 2011). Staining the gel and read the result.
Method to classify based on rDNA sequencing (Maheshwari, 2011). Growth at different acid concentrations. Enzyme production and extraction (Maheshwari, 2011). Determination Enzyme Activity Assays by agar diffusion method (Maheshwari, 2011).
Protein electrophoresis by SDS-PAGE method and Zymogram method SDS-PAGE method (Maheshwari, 2011). RESULTS AND DISCUSSION. Observation of colonies and cells. Classification of acidophilic fungi strains based on rDNA sequence analysis.
The growth of strains at different acid concentrations. Qualitative lignocellulose hydrolysis enzyme. Determination of starch hydrolysis and cellulose degradation by disk diffusion method. Determination of protein, CMCase and xylanase.
CONCLUSION AND PROPOSAL. 47 iv LIST OF TABLES Table 2. The list of the acidophilic fungi, the fungi originally described as indigenous inhabitants of highly acidic habitats (pH < 3) (Hujslová et al. An overview of applications of acidophilic fungal enzymes in various industries (Hassan et al.
Classification of the collected samples. Groups of PCR fingerprinting. The similarity between isolated strains and announced species. The results of the CMC resolution.
39 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2. Extreme acidic environments. Morphological features of the Acidomyces acidophilus WKC-1. Microscopy of Hortaea acidophila, CBS 113389.
Hyphae with annellated zones, and conidia. Some places collecting the samples. Some pictures of isolation on Malt-Glucose 2Bx 1% H2SO4 medium agar plate. Morphological characteristics of colonies and conidiophores on PDA (left) and Malt 2Bx pH1 (right) of strains AS 565-2, AS 612-3, ASS 358- 9.
Electrophoresis images of PCR fingerprinting products of 67 strains. Phylogenetic tree on the basis of their sequences. The growth of strains on different acid concentration. Resolution ring showing CMC hydrolysis capacity.
SDS-PAGE electrophoresis .41 vi ABBREVIATIONS CMC Carboxymethyl cellulose DNA Deoxyribonucleic Acid dNTPs Deoxyribonucleotide triphosphates PCR Polymerase Chain Reaction PDA Potato dextrose agar SDS- Sodium Dodecyl Sulphate-Polyacrylamide PAGE Gel Electrophoresis TAE Tris-acetate-EDTA ITS Internal transcribed spacer vii ABSTRACT In the present work, we aimed to explore the biodiversity of acidophiles and acid- tolerance, especially fungi isolated in Vietnam. Firstly, 103 different samples were collected to isolate acidic strains to be able to grow in extremely acidic conditions (pH 1. There are 109 strains were isolated and maintained before 20 representative strains were sequenced. Strains belong to Acrodontium griseum, Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus terreus, Aspergillus turcosus, Penicillium chermesinum, Penicillium citreonigrum, Penicillium georgiense, Talaromyces atroroseus, and Talaromyces diversus have been identified.
Two new species of Talaromyces and one new species of Penicillium also were detected. By using untreated rice straw as the sole carbon source, some lignocellulolytic activities of 20 representative strains were determined. Xylanase, CMCase and amylase were detected through the disk diffusion method, SDS-PAGE electrophoresis as well as zymogram electrophoresis. Most of strains demonstrated strong CMCase, xylanase activities, meanwhile amylase activity was low.
INTRODUCTION All over the world, there are over 100,000 different species of fungi. They exist at various extremes, including natural and man-made environments. Fungi able to tolerate acidic conditions are frequently encountered in nature, and several species are capable of growing at very low pH levels. There is no clear demarcation between acidophilic and acidophilic fungi, but it is often assumed that acidophilic fungi are those that can grow at pH 1.0 and have optimum growth at pH 3.
In 1943, a strain of Acontium velatum and a “Fungus D” were shown to be capable of growing in a glucose medium containing 1.25 M sulphuric acid at pH 0. Unfortunately, the strain of Acontium velatum appears to have been lost since the initial publication, but “Fungus D” is now believed to be a strain of Acidomyces acidophilus which is commonly found in extremely acidic environments. According to Thanh et al (2019), acidophility has been shown for only 6 fungal species, including Acidomyces acidophilus (=Scytalidium acidophilum = Acidomyces richmondensis = Fungus D), Acidomyces acidothermus, Acidothrix acidophila, Acidea extrema, Acontium velatum (no living specimen available) and Hortaea acidophila (=Neohortaea acidophila). Phylogenetically, all acidophilic species are Ascomycota, and the teleomorphic state is known only for Acidomyces acidothermus (described as Teratosphaeria acidotherma).
However, studies on acidophilic species have not been published much, and the range of acidic tolarance in almost fungi remains a mystery. Acidophilic fungi have received considerable attention, as their thermostable enzymes can be employed in industrial processes at elevated temperatures. Increasing the process temperature can have advantages, for example, increasing the rate of chemical reactions, decreasing the viscosity of substrates and reducing the risk of contamination by mesophilic microorganisms. For example, the strain Bispora sp.
MEY-1, well-known for the production of a range of thermophilic and acidophilic lignocellulolytic enzymes. 1 To study the diversity of acidophilic and acid-tolerant fungi and investigate their lignocellulose-degrading enzymes, we conduct the research entitled "Isolation of acidophilic and acid-tolerant fungi from diverse environments in Vietnam". Research objective The objective of the research is to find out the acidophilic and acid-tolerant fungi in Vietnam having technological potentials. More specifically: • To isolate acidophilic fungi from various samples collected in Vietnam • To determine the taxonomic positions of isolated acidophilic fungi • To determine lignocellulolytic activity and properties of enzymes produced by the obtained fungal strains Requirement • Sample collection • Isolation, purification and maintenance of strains • Examination of the growth of acidophilic strains at different acid concentrations • Classification of strains by morphology, PCR fingerprinting, SDS- PAGE electrophoresis • Classification basing on rDNA sequencing • Enzyme production and extraction for activity assays 2 2.
Introduction of acidophilic fungi 2. Origin and characteristics of acidophilic fungi Extreme environments usually possess various factors incompatible with most life forms. Thus, certain environmental conditions such as low water availability in hyperarid deserts or high temperatures seem to be close to the limit of biological activity (Schulze- Makuch, Airo and Schirmack, 2017). However, despite the apparent hostility of these extreme habitats, they contain a higher level of biodiversity than expected.
The number of different organisms known to reside and thrive in these environmentally extreme conditions has grown rapidly in recent years. For example, robust microbial communities at high-temperature ranges, i., the hot springs acidophilic algae (Cyanidiaceae) grow at 45–56 °C (Skorupa et al., 2013), while the hyperthermophilic archaea tolerate a temperature range above the boiling point (>100 °C) (Antranikian et al. Similarly, there are microbes living in very alkaline environments (as high as pH 12) (Kambura et al. On the other end of the pH scale there are the acidophilic archaea (i., Thermoplasma acidophilum) or the unicellular alga Cyanidium caldarium thriving in very acidic habitats (pH ranges from 0–4).
Furthermore, they can survive exposure to such conditions for weeks, months, years, or even centuries (Aguilera et al. Eukaryotic organisms are exceedingly adaptable, and they are present in all the extreme environments reported until now. In this regard, acidophilic environments are not an exception. Although it is usually assumed that high metal concentrations in acidic habitats limit eukaryotic growth and diversity due to their toxicity, most of these extreme environments showed an unexpectedly high degree of eukaryotic diversity.
Extreme acidic ecosystems usually include as well different abiotic extremes than low pH (Rothschild and Mancinelli, 2001); (Tiquia-Arashiro and Rodrigues, 2016). Thus, eukaryotes thriving at these habitats are often also exposed to low nutrient levels (Brake and Hasiotis, 2010), high concentrations of toxic metals (Aguilera et al., 2007), and/or extreme temperatures 3 (González-Toril et al. Additionally, several studies have revealed representatives from multiple evolutionary eukaryotic lineages, suggesting that the ability to adapt to pH extremes may be widespread (Zettler et al. Extreme acidic environments.
Acidophilic fungi have been reported from various acidic environments. Hitherto, five fungal species isolated from acidic environments are known to be able to grow in extremely acidic conditions. Acontium velatum Morgan was isolated from a solution containing 4% copper sulfate (pH 0. Capnodialean anamorphic fungi were also isolated from acidic environments.
Acidomyces acidophilus was reported as an 4 acidophilic species and has been isolated from the soil (pH 1.5) adjacent to a sulphur pilefield from a natural gas purification plant as Scytalidium acidophilum (Sigler and Carmichael, 1974) and acid mine drainage (pH 0.38) as ‘Acidomyces richmondensis’ (nom.) (Baker et al. Hortaea acidophila Ho¨lker et al. was also isolated from brown coal (pH 0.6) containing humic and fulvic acids (Hölker et al. These latter two species were reported to be able to grow even at pH 1 (Sigler and Carmichael 1974; Baker et al.
2004; Ho¨lker et al. 2004; Selbmann et al. Interestingly, these acidophilic fungi mentioned above are all anamorphic fungi, and no teleomorphic species have been reported from such highly acidic environments. The list of the acidophilic fungi, the fungi originally described as indigenous inhabitants of highly acidic habitats (pH < 3) (Hujslová et al.
Species Isolated from Acidea extrema Highly acidic soil (Czech Republic) Biofilm from the highly acidic river (Spain) Highly acidic soil (Czech Republic) Biofilm from the highly acidic river Acidiella bohemica (Spain) Abandoned mine (Japan) Highly acidic oil shale by-products (Brazil) Acidiella uranophilac Highly acidic water from uranium mine (Australia) Highly acidic river water and sediment (Spain)d Acidophilic algae, acid drainage (Germany) Soil near sulfur pile (Canada) Sulfuric acid (Denmark) Volcanic soil (Iceland) Acidomyces acidophilus Acidic industrial water (The Netherlands) Highly acidic soil (Czech Republic) Highly acidic hot springs (Japan) Highly acidic water from uranium mine (Australia) Acidic waste Acidomyces water of uranium mine (China) Highly acidic soil (Czech Republic, acidothermus Iceland) Acid mine drainage biofilm (USA) Acid transfer pipeline (India) Highly acidic soil (Czech Republic) Enrichment culture of archaeal Richmond mine Acidothrix acidophila acidophilic Nanoorganisms from biofilms of mine (Germany) Highly acidic water from uranium mine (Australia) Acidic waste water from uranium mine (China) Highly acidic soil Coniochaeta fodinicola (Czech Republic) Neohortaea acidophila Extract of brown coal with humic and fulvic acids, pH 0. Some representative group of acidophilic fungi Acidomyces acidophilus Acidomyces acidophilus is a fungus first described by Sigler & J.