Abstract

A consortium of five industrial and six university and research institute partners will explore the potentialities of mycorrhizal fungi occurring at natural polluted sites to confer tolerances to crop plants in soils polluted by heavy metals, NaCl and toxic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) compounds. The industrial partners will perform demonstration projects and produce inocula with reproducible and high qualities and at minimal cost rates so that the inocula can be sold to applicants. The university and research institute partners (both from Western and Eastern European countries) will study the mechanisms underlying the heavy metal, salt and PAH tolerances by cytological, physiological, biochemical and molecular biological techniques.

Objectives

The partners will explore and exploit naturally occurring mycorrhizal (both arbuscular and ectomycorrhizal) fungi in phytoremediation projects. In collaboration with the industrial partner's university scientists will perform both laboratory and field studies in soils polluted by heavy metals, NaCl or toxic hydrocarbons. Such studies will lead to the isolation of naturally occurring, specifically adapted mycorrhizal isolates which confer tolerances to heavy metals, salt and toxic hydrocarbon stresses to plants. The scaling-up and the quality control of the mycorrhizal inocula will be performed by the industrial partners. The university groups will investigate the mechanisms underlying these tolerances by diverse cytological, biochemical and molecular biological techniques.

Description of the work

Most of the higher plants are colonised by mycorrhizal fungi under stress conditions. Isolates have been reported to alleviate these stresses and to confer tolerances to plants. In this project, the partners will isolate both ectomycorrhizal and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and investigate their capacity in conferring tolerances to plants suitable for phytoremediation both in the greenhouse and at selected field sites.

The most efficient isolates will be used for demonstration projects in soils polluted by heavy metals, hydrocarbons and sodium chloride in a concerted action of the industrial and university partners. The industrial partners will develop criteria to standardise the quality of the mycorrhizal inocula and to efficiently produce inocula at low costs, which can be sold to applicants at the end. The university partners will perform basic studies to reveal mechanisms underlying these tolerances. Studies will include electron microscopic and physical (PIXE, EDXA, SIMS, LAMMA etc.) techniques in order to localise elements deposited in tissues colonised by mycorrhizal fungi. Molecular and biochemical studies will give information on the genes being differentially expressed at the plants and fungal sites upon stress alleviation. Some studies will also be performed on the role of helper bacteria in increasing the level of the colonisation of plants by mycorrhizal fungi.

Deliverables

• Isolation of mycorrhizal fungi from polluted soils (accomplished after one year).
• Characterisation of their potentialities to confer tolerances to plants when grown in such polluted soils with the isolation of the most effective strains (2nd and 3rd year).
• Demonstration projects (mainly 3rd year).
• Basic studies to reveal tolerance mechanisms ending with papers (achieved after the

Contacts

Coordinator

• Hermann BOTHE / Universität zu Köln Botanisches Institut / GERMANY

Participant

• Corinne LEYVAL / CNRS-CPB Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique / FRANCE
• Katarzyna TURNAU / Jagiellonian University Institute of Botany / POLAND
• Jaco VANGRONSVELD / Limburgs Universitair Centrum BELGIUM
• Phytobacter GmbH GERMANY
• Ingrid WEISSENHORN / Pius Floris Boomverzorging NETHERLANDS
• Borbola BIRO / RISSAC-MTA TAKI HUNGARY
• Bruno ROBIN / Robin Pepiniers FRANCE
• Hans-Jürgen FÖRSTER / Triton Umweltschutz GERMANY