真菌的生物地质作用及其在环境修复中的应用

Fungal Involvement in Biogeological Processes and Application to Environmental Bioremediation

真菌在自然界中作为有机体的分解者、动植物的病原菌和共生菌,广泛分布于地表和土壤环境,并通过一系列生长及代谢活动,与周围环境中的岩石或矿物基质发生作用,进而影响地球化学过程。真菌的生物地质作用主要包括:真菌促进下岩石或矿物的风化,真菌诱导下次生矿物的形成,以及与上述过程相对应的营养元素和金属离子的迁移与固定。近年来,由生物风化发展而来的生物浸取技术,已经在生物采矿、选矿以及受污染土壤和工业垃圾的生物治理等多个方面得以应用。而将真菌用作吸附剂的生物吸附研究,则显示其能有效祛除工业废水及受污染地下水中所含的金属和有机污染物。因此,无论是从地球化学循环的角度出发,还是考虑资源与环境效应,研究真菌的生物地质作用都具有十分重要的意义。文中从真菌生物风化、生物矿化和环境修复等方面综述了真菌生物地质作用研究的最新进展,并对今后的研究工作进行了展望,旨在加深真菌在地质微生物学作用过程中的认识,促进相关领域的进一步发展。

In the Earth's lithosphere, fungi are of fundamental significance as organism decomposers, animal and plant pathogens and symbionts, being ubiquitous in subaerial and subsoil environments. The ability of fungi to interact with rock or mineral substrates through their growth and metabolic activities, makes them an important participator in geochemical processes. The principal roles include the fungi-promoted mineral weathering, mycogenic mineral formation, nutrient and metal elements transformation and immobilization. In recent years, the bioleaching technologies derived from biological weathering have beneficial applications in the biomining, bio-beneficiation, as well as the bioremediation of contaminated soils and industrial solid waste. Moreover, the research on fungi as the biosorbents reveals that fungi can be applicable to remove metal or organic pollutants from the industrial wastewater and contaminated groundwater. Therefore, it is fully essential to understand the fungal activities encompassed within geomicrobiology. This mini review summarized current progresses of biological geological process for fungi, with focuses on biological weathering, biomineralization and environmental bioremediation, and future perspectives were proposed to better understand the important fungal functions in geomicrobiology and to catalyze further research in the field.