No abstract

The inappropriate disposal of toxic compounds generated by industrial activity has been impacting to the environment considerably. Microbial communities inhabiting contaminated sites may represent interesting ecological alternatives for the decontamination of environments. The present work aimed to investigate the fungal diversity inhabiting sediments from industrial waste containing heavy metals by using metagenomic approach. A total of twelve fungal orders were retrieved from datasets and, at phylum level, Ascomycota was the most abundant, followed by Basidiomycota, Chytridiomycota and Blastocladiomycota. Higher abundance of sequences was encountered within the less contaminated site, while the lower abundance was found in the sample with the higher contamination with lead. Gene sequences related to DNA repair and heavy metals biosorption processes were found in the four samples analyzed. The genera Aspergillus and Chaetomium, and Saccharomycetales order were highly present within all samples, showing their potential to be used for bioremediation studies. The present work demonstrated the importance of using the metagenomic approach to understand the dynamics of fungal communities and their behavior under heavy metal contamination, aiming the use in bioremediation processes of environments contaminated with heavy metals.