Molecular and morphological identification of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in Kutahya mine-tailings: Bio-phytoremediating at mine site

Tavsanli is a coal mining site located in Kutahya, Turkey. The tailings of this mine site are contaminated with heavy metals. Heavy metal contamination possesses a threat to the biota, ecosystem function and structure. Thus, remediation of mine tailing is crucial for the removal and destruction of toxic elements. Bio-phytoremediation is the use of plants, microorganisms or both to remove, detoxify, sequester contaminants or convert them into non-toxic materials. Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF) have the ability to form symbiotic relationship with plenty of plant species and help them cope with extreme environmental conditions such as heavy metal pollution, drought, acidity. Since Tavsanli stands for a stressed environment due to its contamination, it is hypothesized that native plants have an interaction with Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi in order to support plants to thrive in harsh conditions. This thesis examined how bio-phytoremediation methods can be implemented for the Tavsanli mine tailings. Soil samples and native plants were obtained from the mine site and greenhouse experiments were carried out with Sorghum bicolor L. seeds as host plant. Then roots were examined using both molecular and morphological techniques to investigate the presence of AMF which are known to bioremediate heavy metal contaminated sites. Following the DNA extraction, specific primers that target the Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) region were used to identify the AMF in the soil samples, DNA isolates were sequenced and compared to the fungi database.