Genômica e biologia de fungos
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Degrading Tire Rubber: Could Isolation of Filamentous Fungi Work?

Salomé Gómez-Gómez1, Luis David Gómez-Méndez2*, Angela María Alvarado-Fernández3,4

Tire Rubber (TR) is a material that despite being recalcitrant can be biodegraded. Biodegradation is more effective after detoxification, and includes biodeterioration, depolymerization, and assimilation of the material by microorganisms. The potential for TR biodegradation in filamentous fungi isolated from deteriorated tires was explored. Its growth was evaluated on Radha agar with ground tire rubber (GTR) at concentrations (w/v) of 0.6, 1.5, 15, 45, 100% and in liquid media at 0.8%. The best growth was obtained at the 15% concentration, possibly due to a balance between the carbon source and the toxicity of the material. Six morphotypes grew significantly at the 100% concentration, and four significantly acidified the liquid media, suggesting the ability to solubilize metals. These ten (10) morphotypes that showed biodeterioration potential by growing on the polymer were identified by their phenotype. The ability to acidify the liquid media of Curvularia sp. 2 and its growth in 100% TR agar, made it of special interest, along with four Trichoderma spp. morphotypes, whose growth in all concentrations and previous reports of degradation of other polymers suggest great potential to depolymerize and assimilate TR.