The Lead [Pb(II)] tolerance and uptake ability of four fungal species, two from the genus Penicillium and two from the genus Talaromyces were investigated in this study. The species were isolated from a polluted tributary and identified to be closest to P. canescens, P. simplicissimum, T. macrosporus and another Talaromyces sp. via PCR targeting their internal transcribed spacer 1 and 4 sequences. All isolates have tolerances for up to 2000 µg/mL and 3000 µg/mL Pb(II) on solid and liquid medium, respectively. Both Penicillium isolates have increasing removal rates dependent on initial Pb(II) concentration at 500 to 2000 µg/mL, while removal rates of both Talaromyces isolates are not significantly influenced by initial Pb(II) concentrations. The Pb(II) uptake of all isolates increases with increasing Pb(II) concentration but is depressed at 3000 µg/mL, with the exception of T. macrosporus. The recorded total uptake capacities for both Penicillium isolates in this study are higher than in most literature, at 7.0 – 407.4 mg/g and 50.8 – 412.6 mg/g for P. canescens and P. simplicissimum, respectively. The study also reports the exemplary Pb(II) uptake capacities of both Talaromyces isolates at 58.9 – 601.0 mg/g and 60.9 – 402.3 mg/g for T. macrosporus and Talaromyces sp., respectively.
