Cell and Tissue Journal

Abstract Aim:The contamination of soil by crude oil is an important environmental problem. Bioremediation have gained more attention in recent years as a low-cost technique for pollutant removal. The aim of this research was to investigate the ability of rhizospheral fungal strains collected from plants grown in a petroleum-polluted soil using different concentrations of pollutant. Material and Methods: In this research rhizospheral fungal strains were collected from the plants grown in the Tehran refinery area and cultured on the PDA media containing different concentrations (0-15%) of crude oil.   Efficiency of removal for each isolated fungi was determined after one month. Results: Results showed that, all fungi were able to remove petroleum at the concentrations of 1, 2, 4 and 6% (P≤0.01). In addition all the fungi except Diplosporium sp. and Penicillium sp., were able to decrease crude oil at the concentrations of 8, 10 and 15% (P≤0.05). Conclusion: It was concluded that the studied fungi were able to remove the crude oil from the growth media. Since Aspergillus sp < /em>. was relatively more effective therefore this fungus has the highest bioremediation potency of petroleum polluted environments.