Bioremediation of soil contaminated crude oil by Agaricomycetes

Background: one of the most important environmental problems is the decontamination of petroleum hydrocarbons polluted soil, particularly in the oil-rich country. bioremediation is the most effective way to remove these pollutants in the soil. spent mushroom compost has great ability to decompose lignin-like pollution. the purpose of this study was the bioremediation of soil contaminated with crude oil by an agaricomycetes. methods: soil sample amended with spent mushroom compost into 3%, 5% and 10% (w/w) with or without fertilizer. ecotoxicity germination test was conducted with lipidium sativa. results: the amplified fragment (18 s rdna) sequence of this mushroom confirmed that the strain belonged to pleurotus ostreatus species with complete homology (100% identity). all tests experiment sets were effective at supporting the degradation of petroleum hydrocarbons contaminated soil after three months. petroleum contaminated soil amended with spent mushroom compost 10% and fertilizer removed 64.7% of total petroleum hydrocarbons compared control. the germination index (%) in ecotoxicity tests ranged from 60.4 to 93.8%. conclusions: this showed that the petroleum hydrocarbons contaminated soil amended with 10% spent mushroom compost had higher bioremediation ability and reduced soil toxicity in less than three months.