“Mycoremediation” of PFAS: application of wood decay fungi and natural wood substrates to investigate the tolerance, degradation, and sequestration capacity of fungi for perfluorocarboxylic acids:

The widespread and large-scale manufacture and use of per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) since the 1950’s has led to globally ubiquitous contamination of the environment with PFAS and PFAS precursors. These fluorinated contaminants demonstrate extreme resilience to degradation and therefore do not meaningfully degrade when introduced to the environment. Exposure to these compounds is associated with numerous negative health outcomes. The development of novel remediation methods tailored to address these compounds is required as traditional technologies are generally poorly suited to the task. An alternative approach to supplement existing and developing physicochemical remediation technologies is the application of biological treatment methods. Bioremediation techniques utilizing microbes or enzymes are currently poorly developed, with limited examples of microbes with the capacity to degrade PFAS. This is especially true for fungal organisms. To address this knowledge gap, an appropriate fluoride detection method and an ideal fungal model are required. Therefore, we systematically evaluated methods for quantifying free fluoride anions and detecting and quantifying PFAS compounds under cultural conditions ideal for fungal species. Thereby, addressing the first requirement for the investigation of fungal PFAS degradation, identification of a suitable method to quantify PFAS removal, and to confirm defluorination; a prerequisite for meaningful biodegradation of PFAS. Next, through fungal screening via exposure to selected PFAS an appropriate model fungus was selected with the capacity to tolerate PFAS. Finally, PFAS degradation and defluorination was measured under solid and liquid culture methods using the selected methodology. The capacity to degrade and remove PFAS was confirmed leading to the development and investigation of a fungal-based sorbent system and investigation of PFAS sequestration by wood-based sorbents. This work contributes to the field of PFAS bioremediation, highlighting the importance of defluorination for the treatment of these compounds, and it draws attention to the role understudied fungi play in determining the environmental fate of PFAS and the potential they possess for the development of novel treatment techniques.

Author dc:creator

• Ayers, Charles

• biodegradation
• Fluorinated pollutants
• Fungi
• PFAS

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/11299/278048

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:conservancy.umn.edu:11299/278048