Trivalent Arsenic Tolerance and Accumulation in Two Facultative Marine Fungi

Background: facultative marine fungi could potentially be arsenic tolerant and may beable to remove this highly poisonous metal from the environment.objectives: the objective of this work was to explore the degree of tolerance and removalefficiency of two facultative marine fungi.materials and methods: facultative marine fungi aspergillus flavus and rhizopus spp.were exposed to 25 mg/l and 50 mg/l sodium arsenite (as (iii)). tolerance of these speciesto the test concentrations was assessed by studying their biomass accumulation.accumulation of arsenic by the fungal biomass was also evaluated.results: our study revealed that both a. flavus and rhizopus sp. exhibited tolerance towardsthe test concentrations of arsenic. both of the test fungi also exhibited arsenicaccumulation. rhizopus sp. was found to be a slightly better potential accumulator.conclusions: this study reveals that the test fungi can be harnessed as bioremediationagents for arsenic contaminated sites.