COoperative catabolic iNteractioNs bEtween fungi and baCTeria during the microbial breakdown of anthropogenic chemicals in polluted environments

While there is no doubt that bacteria and fungi coexisting in ecosystems are the major players contributing to the biocatalytic breakdown of pollutants, their potential biochemical collaboration during the catabolism of the anthropogenic pollutants remains largely unclear. Knowledge on cooperative catabolic bacterial-fungal interactions (BFIs) concentrates on only a few environmental pollutants and is far from being unambiguous. Moreover, mechanistic information about pollutant metabolites or catabolic pathways contributing to BFIs is very scant and missing for most environmental pollutants. Within the proposed project we aim to verify whether there exist cooperative catabolic interactions between environmentally relevant fungi and bacteria during the aerobic microbial breakdown of selected model pollutants - pesticides and pharmaceuticals, which occur in the river bank sediments and soils of agricultural use. The expected results will provide profound new knowledge with respect to the functioning of ecosystems, related soil ecosystem services and mineralization of pollutants.