Heavy metal bioaccumulation by wild edible saprophytic and ectomycorrhizal mushrooms

Abstract

Heavy metals cause serious problems in the environment, and they can be accumulated in organisms, especially in the higher fungi. The concentration of Ni, Cr, Pb, Cd, and Hg in 10 species of edible mushrooms in Medvednica Nature Park, Croatia was therefore determined. In addition, the similarity between the studied species was determined by cluster analysis based on concentrations of the aforementioned metals in the fruiting bodies. The contents of nickel, chromium, lead, cadmium, and mercury in the fruiting bodies of mushrooms were obtained by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry. The highest concentrations of Ni (3.62 mg kg(-1)), Cr (3.01 mg kg(-1)), and Cd (2.67 mg kg(-1)) were determined in Agaricus campestris. The highest concentration of Pb (1.67 mg kg(-1)) was determined in Macrolepiota procera, and the highest concentration of Hg (2.39 mg kg(-1)) was determined in Boletus edulis. The concentration of all heavy metals significantly differed (p < 0.001) between examined saprophytic and ectomycorrhizal mushrooms. Considering anatomical part of the fruiting body (cap-stipe), a considerably higher concentration of the analyzed elements was found in the cap for all mushroom species. According to calculated bioconcentration factors, all the examined species were found to be bioexclusors of Ni, Cr, and Pb and bioaccumulators of Cd and Hg. Cluster analysis performed on the basis of the accumulation of the studied metals revealed great phenotypic similarity of mushroom species belonging to the same genus and partial similarity of species of the same ecological affiliation.

Mushrooms as Biomonitors of Heavy Metals Contamination in Forest Areas

“…Higher concentrations of zinc, cadmium and copper were determined in hats than in stems of the mushrooms collected from both study areas. The results of the carried out analyses confirm the results of other authors [29]. In the case of other elements, concentrations determined in stems and hats are comparable or the concentration in stem is higher than the one in hat.…”

Evaluation of heavy metals accumulation potential of hemp (Cannabis sativa L.)

“…Important components of ecosystems in remediation of metals in the environment are plants (Prasad and Freitas, 2003) but also other organisms like mushrooms which are known to accumulate high concentrations of toxic metallic elements and metalloids (Svoboda et al, 2006;Borovicka et al, 2010). Accordingly, Siric et al (2016) and Siric et al (2017) investigated bioaccumulation potential in mushrooms from Croatia and found bioaccumulation ability of Cd and Hg for all examined species. The ability to accumulate heavy metals varies between species and among cultivars within species, based on their genetic, morphological, physiological and anatomical characteristics (Farid et al, 2014).…”

Determination of Elements in Wild Edible Mushrooms: Levels and Risk Assessment

“…Based on these properties, it can be stated that the wild growing mushrooms are an important bioindicator of environmental pollution Árvay et al, 2012), especially in areas affected by significant industrial activity (Gao and Chen, 2012). Risk elements that are currently an important environmental problem (Alonso et al, 2000) get into the fructification organs of mushrooms through the mycelium (Širić et al, 2016;Rieder et al, 2011) while their translocation in the fructification organs is diverse (Zocher et al, 2018). Scientists assume that metals and/or metalloids are bound to the proteins in the hymenophore that has the highest enzyme activity.…”