Studying Pleurotus Ostreatus as a Bioremediator of Common Persistent Pesticides in Water

The focus of this study will be to analyze and compare how Pleurotus ostreatus, commonly known as the oyster mushroom, degrades long persistent pesticides. The study will be used to better understand how Pleurotus ostreatus, a culinary mushroom reacts and degrades long persistent herbicides, acetochlor, cyanazine, and metolachlor. This mushroom is a white-rot fungus and has previously been used to successfully degrade polyaromatic hydrocarbons. When pesticides are used, the remaining chemicals can be embedded in the food, soil, and water and be consumed by humans and animals, which will cause detrimental effects on their cellular structure and bodily functions. The pesticides flowing into the groundwater allow for the water to be contaminated from the chemicals. Groundwater contamination can result in poor water quality, which can allow bacteria to grow in water storages and can result in various illnesses to those intaking the water, such as animals, plants, and humans, thus this scientific problem aligns itself well with the One Health initiative. Poor groundwater quality can lead to poor crop yield and can further contaminate food. We propose a solution to degrading the pesticides using Pleurotus ostreatus. To evaluate the efficacy of Pleurotus ostreatus on degrading the herbicides acetochlor, cyanazine, and metolachlor, samples of Pleurotus ostreatus will be spiked with each herbicide at three concentrations mirroring those found in polluted water. LC-MS analysis will be used to track the concentrations of each pesticide over a 5 week period as well as the identity of the degradates.