• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.129-133
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• 2014

BACKGROUND: This study was performed for selecting yeast mutants with a high tolerance for targeted metals, and determining whether yeasts strains tolerant to multiple heavy metals could be induced by sequential adaptations. METHODS AND RESULTS: A mutant yeast strain tolerant to the heavy metals cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), and zinc (Zn) was selected by sequential elevated exposures to each metal with intermittent mutant isolation steps. A Cd-tolerant mutant was isolated by growing yeast cells in media containing $CdCl_2$ concentrations that were gradually increased to 1 mM. Then the Cd-tolerant mutant was gradually exposed to increasing levels of $CuCl_2$ in growth media until a concentration of 7 mM was reached, thus generating a strain tolerant to both Cd and Cu. In the subsequent steps, this mutant was exposed to $NiCl_2$ (up to 8 mM), and a resultant isolate was further exposed to $ZnCl_2$ (up to 60 mM), allowing the derivation of a yeast mutant that was simultaneously tolerant to Cd, Cu, Ni, and Zn. CONCLUSION: This method of inducing tolerance to multiple targeted heavy metals in yeast will be useful in the bioremediation of heavy metals.

• Mycobiology
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.379-387
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• 2023

In this study, twenty-five yeast strains were isolated from soil samples collected in the gold mining ore in Gia Lai, Vietnam. Among them, one isolate named GL1^T could highly tolerate Cu²⁺ up to 10 mM, and the isolates could also grow in a wide range of pH (3-7), and temperature (10-40 ℃). Dried biomass of GL1 was able to remove Cu²⁺ effectively up to 90.49% with a maximal biosorption capacity of 18.1 mg/g at pH 6, temperature 30 ℃, and incubation time 60 min. Sequence analysis of rDNA indicated this strain was closely related to Rhodotorula mucilaginosa but with 1.53 and 3.46% nucleotide differences in the D1/D2 domain of the 28S rRNA gene and the ITS1-5.8S rRNA gene-ITS2 region sequence, respectively. Based on phylogenetic tree analysis and the biochemical characteristics, the strain appears to be a novel Rhodotorula species, and the name Rhodotorula aurum sp. nov. is proposed. This study provides us with more information about heavy metal-tolerant yeasts and it may produce a new tool for environmental control and metal recovery operations.

• Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.60 no.2
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• pp.113-117
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• 2017

Bioremediation is a technique using microorganisms to clean up contaminated pollutants including heavy metals. It is well known that yeasts have a high capacity to remove a wide range of metals by biosorption. Therefore, this study was focused on to obtain yeast mutant that has strong tolerance to zinc (Zn), one of representative heavy metals. The Zn resistant yeast mutant (ZnR) was induced and isolated by growing yeast cells in media containing 1 mM $ZnCl_2$ and gradually increasing the concentration until 80 mM $ZnCl_2$, in which cells were adapted and survived. The induced ZnR cells showed strong tolerance to Zn stress compared with control cells. Moreover, the ZnR cells showed increased tolerance to cadmium and nickel stress but decreased tolerance to copper stress. The increased tolerance of ZnR cells to Zn stress was due to mutation of genes. This study can be useful in bioremediation of heavy metals as the metal tolerant microorganism was artificially induced in short time.

• Mycobiology
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.507-520
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• 2021

Papiliotrema huenov was previously reported to be highly tolerant of a range of extremely toxic heavy metals. This study aimed to identify the potential of P. huenov to remove manganese and copper from aqueous solution. Physical conditions which affect removal of Mn(II) and Cu(II) were determined. Optimal temperature for adsorption of both metal ions was 30 ℃, and optimal pH for maximum uptake of Mn(II) and Cu(II) were 5 and 6, respectively. Under these conditions, living cells of P. huenov accumulated up to 75.58% of 110 mg/L Mn(II) and 70.5% of 128 mg/L Cu(II) over 120 h, whereas, the removal efficiency of metal ions by dead cells over 1 h was 60.3% and 56.5%, respectively. These results indicate that living cells are more effective than dead biomass for bioremediation, but that greater time is required. The experimental data extends the potential use of P. huenov in biosorption and bioaccumulation of toxic heavy metals to copper and manganese, two of the most common industrial contaminants.