BIODEGRADATION OF PETROLEUM HYDROCARBONS BY KERATINOLYTIC FUNGI Krzysztof Ulfig 1 , Wioletta Przysta 1 , Gra yna P aza 2 and Korneliusz Miksch 1 1 Environmental Biotechnology Department, Silesian University of Technology, Gliwice, Poland; 2 Environmental Microbiology Department, Institute for Ecology of Industrial Areas, Katowice, Poland Abstract: The chapter reviews available data on the ability of keratinolytic fungi to remove hydrocarbons from different media and on the ecology of these fungi in oil-contaminated environments. In pure culture, these fungi were able to remove hexane, toluene, hexadecane, pristane and autoclaved crude oil from mineral media. The hydrocarbon removal process was much more effective when hair or peptone was added to the media. Thus, the process was dependent on fungal proteolytic or keratinolytic activity, specifically on the readily available protein content in the media. The ability for hydrocarbon removal was found to be species- and strain-specific. In pure culture, keratinolytic fungi removed polar products of petroleum biodegradation from the media. In a soil environment, the degradation process was slowed down due to the accumulation of these polar products. Key words: keratinolytic fungi; oil hydrocarbon removal; survival; ecology; oil- contaminated environments 1. INTRODUCTION Two major reasons to examine keratinolytic fungi in the environment can be named. First, the abundance of these microorganisms is observed in environments rich in keratinous remnants of human and animal origin and in other substrata needed for fungal growth, e.g., in soils of highly populated and animal-inhabited areas, sewage sludge and municipal waste (Garg et al., 1985; Deshmukh and Agrawal, 1998; Ulfig, 2000). Keratinolytic fungi play 553 I. Twardowska et al. (eds.), and Water Pollution Monitoring, Protection and Remediation, 3–23. © 2006 Springer. Soil