Toshihiko Ohnuki

The accumulation and change in the chemical states of Co have been studied to elucidate the role of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae in the migration of radioactive cobalt in the environment. The yeast was grown in a solution containing Co(II) ions, a carbon source, and essential elements (metabolically active condition). For comparison, an adsorption experiment of Co(II) ions on the yeast cells under resting condition without essential elements was performed. Time courses of Co concentration in the solution, in the cells, and chemical states of the accumulated Co were determined by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES), particle-induced X-ray emission (PIXE), and X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) analyses. The time courses of Co concentration in the solution showed that a higher amount of Co was accumulated by the yeast cells under the metabolically active condition than under the resting one. PIXE analyses showed the concurrent accumulation of Fe with Co accumulation under the metabolically active condition, suggesting the intracellular accumulation of Co. XAFS analyses showed that the k³-weighted extended-XAFS functions and the radial structural function of Co accumulated by the yeast cells under the metabolically active condition are similar to those under the resting condition, indicating that the chemical states of the accumulated Co were nearly the same between both conditions. These results indicate that the yeast performs better retardation of the migration of Co under the metabolically active condition than under the resting one.

Uptake of uranium by higher fungi, such as mushroom is little elucidated. We have studied the interaction of uranium with Pleurotus sp. (a mushroom) in pure culture over a wide range of U concentration (50-3000 mg/L). The Pleurotus sp. was cultured in two different media. One was rice bran medium, and the other was agar (yeast extract, peptone and dextrose) medium. The uptake of uranium in Pleurotus sp. was examined by alpha ray autoradiography (AA), X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF) and scanning microcopy (SEM) equipped with EDS. In the agar medium, the higher uranium concentration gave lower growth of mycelia, and no fruiting body was observed. In the rice bran medium, the fruiting body was grown at U concentrations up to 1000 mg/L. The AA and XRF analysis showed that uranium taken up in the fruiting body was below, the detection limit. The SEM-EDS analysis indicated that U was distributed in the limited region and was not transported to the mycelia far from U containing medium. It is concluded that uranium affects the growth of Pleurotus sp., and little uranium is taken up by Pleurotus sp. during the growth of both mycelia and fruiting body.