Fullerols, the hydroxylated analogues of fullerenes, are produced both industrially and through the environmental oxidation of fullerenes.  Fullerols have distinct physicochemical properties from fullerenes and are thus susceptible to different microbial decay mechanisms.  Previous research has demonstrated the capability of specific microbes, such as wood-decaying white rot basidiomycetes, to oxidize double bonds, evidenced by a blue shift in the color of the experiment, rupture the fullerol cage, and metabolize some portion of the fullerol carbon. In this poster we present the results of a decay study of fullerols by brown rot basidiomycete fungi.  Brown rot fungi have very different mechanisms for the decomposition of substrates, relying more on hydrolytic and Fenton chemistry than the lignase-producing white rot fungi. We find that the brown rot fungi Gloeophyllum trabeum, Fomitopsis pinicola, and Postia placenta are capable of alteration of fullerols, evidenced by release of 13C-labeled carbon as CO2, but with little evidence of double bond oxidation and a minor capacity to metabolize some portion of the fullerol structure. This indicates that the hydrolytic and oxidative enzyme systems in the brown rot wood decay fungi would play potentially a minor role compared to white rot fungi in transforming the fullerol structure but could still be responsible for some aspect of its decay in the environment.

Brown rot basidiomycete fungal alteration of C60 fullerols

246th National Meeting (2013)

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