Journal of Ecology and the Natural Environment Vol. 3(5), pp. 168-175, May 2011 Available online at http://www.academicjournals.org/jene ISSN 2006- 9847 ©2011 Academic Journals Full Length Research Paper Biosorption of heavy metals by immobilized and dead fungal cells: A comparative assessment B. Hemambika, M. Johncy Rani and V. Rajesh Kannan* Rhizosphere Biology Laboratory, Department of Microbiology, School of Life Sciences, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchchirappalli – 620 024, Tamil Nadu, India. Accepted 10 January, 2011 Heavy metal resistant fungi were isolated from an electroplating industrial effluent samples that uses copper, cadmium and lead for plating. These isolates were tested to evaluate their applicability for heavy metal removal from industrial wastewaters. Initially the physico-chemical parameters of the samples were analyzed. The optimum conditions of pH, biomass concentration and heavy metal concentration were determined for the microbial growth on biosorbents and correlated with heavy metal removal. The observed conditions were applied for the biosorption process in immobilized and dead fungal cells. The biosorption of immobilized cells of Aspergillus sp. was 60.94% of Cu, Penicillium sp. was 97.21% of Cd and Cephalosporium sp. was 73.27% of Pb; whereas the dead cells of Aspergillus sp. was 46.91% of Cu, Penicillium sp. was 95.27% of Cd and Cephalosporium sp. was 70.67% of Pb. Experimental results reveal that all the immobilized isolates have potential application for the removal of Cu, Cd and Pb from industrial wastewater than the dead fungal cells. Key words: Heavy metal, fungal sorption, optimization, dead fungal cells, immobilization INTRODUCTION Developmental progress in an industry is a major criterion of any country. Industrial creations have emerged as one of the world’s most dynamic and economic sectors, offering vast opportunities for cultural, social and economic development. Today, India is one of the top ten indus-trialized countries of the world (Guillén, 2003). Regional industrial production is outstripping global growth from one side and several highly polluting industries are growing more rapidly in another side. Because of the rapid growth in urbanization and indus- trialization, the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) due to environmental terms has largely been negative. The current pattern of industrial activity alters the natural flow of materials and introduces novel toxic chemicals into the environment (Faisal and Hasnanin, 2004). Heavy metal release to the environment has been increasing *Corresponding author. E-mail: uvrajesh@gmail.com. Tel: +91- 431-2407082. Fax: +91- 431-2407045. continuously because of industrial activities and techno- logical development and poses a significant threat to the environment, public and soil health. Contamination of agricultural soil with heavy metals is a major problem on industrial and defense related sites all over the world (Parameswari et al., 2010). Heavy metals include cadmium, lead, chromium, copper and nickel, which contaminate the soils, ground water, sediments and surface waters are extremely toxic to biological and ecological systems. The heavy metals are released due to the discharge of effluent into the environment by a large number of processes such as electroplating, leather tanning, wood preservation, pulp processing, steel manufacturing, etc. The concentration levels of these heavy metals vary widely in the environment. Heavy metals have a critical concern to human health and environmental issues due to their high occurrence as a contaminant, present in soluble form that are extremely toxic to biological systems, and the classification of several heavy metals as carcinogenic and mutagenic (Alloway, 1995; Diels et al., 2002). Moreover, the metals