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Emma-Lou
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Registered: 11/14/12
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PAH degredation by Pleurotus ostreatus - solvent issue
#17217303 - 11/14/12 07:32 AM (11 years, 6 months ago) |
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Hi there!
This is my first post, so apologies for any repetition... though I have searched the forum as best I can!
I am an undergraduate student looking at the breakdown of PAHs by oyster mushrooms, as in Paul Stamets work.
I've grown my mycelium mats now and just need to spike them with the PAHs I'm looking at. My main issue now is finding a solvent that I can dissolve my PAHs in that wont harm the mycelium... I'm not sure if such a thing exists either and my university tutors are finding it difficult to help me as this is my own research project idea and no-one at my University has looked into this before!
Any help would be gratefully received.
Many thanks Emma-Lou
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Little Miss Mycologist
Edited by Emma-Lou (11/14/12 07:33 AM)
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Beefy1
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Registered: 05/01/09
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Re: PAH degredation by Pleurotus ostreatus - solvent issue [Re: Emma-Lou]
#17217333 - 11/14/12 07:44 AM (11 years, 6 months ago) |
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Mostly posting just to follow this thread.
Welcome to the Shroomery
What would the hydrocarbons be dissolved in out in the real world? How do they move through the environment?
Does it have to be a liquid you feed to the mycelium?
Could you maybe use some organic solid to absorb the PAHs, then feed that solid to the myc? Straw, woodchips, coco coir, peat moss?
Just throwing out ideas,
Looking forward to other's answers.
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BothHands
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Re: PAH degredation by Pleurotus ostreatus - solvent issue [Re: Emma-Lou]
#17217351 - 11/14/12 07:49 AM (11 years, 6 months ago) |
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That's pretty awesome. 
Wouldn't it be easier to dissolve the PAHs in hexane, put on sawdust, evaporate, and then add your spores/agar/LC/etc?
For my own curiosity, how are you going to measure the PAH degradation?
-------------------- Put America to sleep with warm milk and clichés.
Edited by BothHands (11/14/12 07:51 AM)
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Emma-Lou
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Registered: 11/14/12
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Re: PAH degredation by Pleurotus ostreatus - solvent issue [Re: BothHands]
#17217382 - 11/14/12 08:02 AM (11 years, 6 months ago) |
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Hey there 
Thanks for your interest! Ususally the PAHs would be part of a crude oil etc, which is what Paul Stamets used in his experiment, however, my tutor who does know about PAHs, just not the degradation by fungi, wants me to look at specific PAHs, as looking at total hydrocarbon levels isnt really enough to warrant a good thesis.... to try and identify all of the PAHs in a crude oil, if I were to use that, would also take such a long time to firstly decipher which PAHs are actually in there (they vary from oil to oil) and separate out the other constituents, and then have to do it all again to see the degradation, so I'm just going to use three separate PAHs as we will know what to look for then.
Your right BothHands, I could do it that way for sure, though I've already grown the mycelium mats as I'd forgotten to consider the solvent issue! So it just means a little more time to re-do it, but thats ok really if necessary. And I'm going to be using GC-MS, Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry 
Thanks again! Emm
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Little Miss Mycologist
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BothHands
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Re: PAH degredation by Pleurotus ostreatus - solvent issue [Re: Emma-Lou]
#17217476 - 11/14/12 08:33 AM (11 years, 6 months ago) |
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Do you know which three you're going to pick? Picking three most toxic PAHs would make for a very interesting thesis about the maginitude of the detoxifying properties of the mushroom, but using the three most common PAHs would make for a thesis with a broader application, maybe?
-------------------- Put America to sleep with warm milk and clichés.
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Darkman
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Re: PAH degredation by Pleurotus ostreatus - solvent issue [Re: BothHands]
#17239365 - 11/18/12 08:03 AM (11 years, 5 months ago) |
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Great thesis, hope you can share your results.
We have a nascent oil industry gearing up
and waste oil disposal is a big issue.
On another note, the fact that the mushroom
fruit bodies take up the heavy metals,
is another interesting area of study.
Good luck.
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Emma-Lou
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Registered: 11/14/12
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Last seen: 11 years, 3 months
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Re: PAH degredation by Pleurotus ostreatus - solvent issue [Re: Darkman]
#17607531 - 01/25/13 07:41 AM (11 years, 3 months ago) |
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Hi there,
Thanks for your interest again! Things are going well with my project - in the end I opted for just using the acetone that I'd suspended the PAHs in to sterilise the woodchip substrate - which worked fine and I was relived to find only mycellium growing after the Christmas holidays! I've now performed a number of extractions and am at the point where I'll be running them through the GC-MS next week - whoop! I've extracted the PAHs from the mycellium phase of growth so now I just need to let the next set fruit mushrooms asn then extract what PAHs are left after that - I'm looking to see if there is a difference in the degradation during mycellial growth vs fruiting growth phases... if there is any - and also to see if there is any bioaccumilation within the fruiting body - project is due in on the 1st of March so I'll share my end results with you some time after then!
I do have another question too but I'll post that as a separate issue in a moment.
Thanks again! Emma-Lou
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Little Miss Mycologist
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