Phaeodactylum tricornutum as a potential phytoremediator of Sea and Fresh Waters

Abstract

Phaeodactylum tricornutum is commonly spotted marine diatom species. It is known of its advantages as model organism used in many scientific applications, such as sequenced genome and ease culture. Toxic elements pollution is frequent issue in developing countries since elimination of such contamination is expensive, and dangerous to human health. Bioremediation is often seen as a solution of this problem. In this work P. tricornutum is analyzed as a potential bioremediating agent in sea and freshwater. Ability to growth in different concentrations of arsenic, cadmium and mercury is tested. It is investigated if P. tricornutum is able to proliferate in freshwater samples taken from river. At last concentration of every listed element is evaluated before and after culture. It is concluded that P. tricornutum has huge potential as a bioremediating organism.