Uptake of certain heavy metals from contaminated soil by mushroom—Galerina vittiformis

• First report on in-vitro culturing of mushrooms for metal removal from soil.
• Bioremediation of soil contaminated with heavy metals using fruiting bodies of Galerina vittiformis mushroom.
• 80–90 percent removal of heavy metals like Cd (II), Cr (VI), Cu (II), Pb (II) and Zn (II) from soil.
• Efficient and better ease of separation from the soil due to larger biomass of mushrooms.
• Fruiting body more efficient in removing potent heavy metals like Cd (II) and Pb (II) than mycelia of wild mushrooms under study.
• Quick and economical ways of remediation.

Remediation of soil contaminated with heavy metals has received considerable attention in recent years. In this study, the heavy metal uptake potential of the mushroom, Galerina vittiformis, was studied in soil artificially contaminated with Cu (II), Cd (II), Cr (VI), Pb (II) and Zn (II) at concentrations of 50 and 100 mg/kg. G. vittiformis was found to be effective in removing the metals from soil within 30 days. The bioaccumulation factor (BAF) for both mycelia and fruiting bodies with respect to these heavy metals at 50 mg/kg concentrations were found to be greater than one, indicating hyper accumulating nature by the mushroom. The metal removal rates by G. vittiformis was analyzed using different kinetic rate constants and found to follow the second order kinetic rate equation except for Cd (II), which followed the first order rate kinetics.