Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Bioresource Technology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/biortech First demonstration that ascomycetous halophilic fungi (Aspergillus sydowii and Aspergillus destruens) are useful in xenobiotic mycoremediation under high salinity conditions Deborah González-Abradelo a,1 , Yordanis Pérez-Llano a,1 , Heidy Peidro-Guzmán a,1 , María del Rayo Sánchez-Carbente b , Jorge Luis Folch-Mallol b , Elisabet Aranda c , Vinoth Kumar Vaidyanathan d , Hubert Cabana e , Nina Gunde-Cimerman f , Ramón Alberto Batista-García a,f, ⁎ a Centro de Investigación en Dinámica Celular, Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias Básicas y Aplicadas, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos (UAEM), Ave. Universidad 1001, Col. Chamilpa, CP. 62209 Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico b Centro de Investigaciones en Biotecnología, UAEM, Ave. Universidad 1001, Col. Chamilpa, CP. 62209 Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico c Instituto Universitario de Investigación del Agua, Universidad de Granada, Calle Núñez Blanca 1, CP. 18003 Granada, Spain d Department of Biotechnology, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Mahatma Gandhi Rd, Potheri, SRM Nagar, Kattankulathur 603203, Tamil Nadu, India e Faculté de Genié, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, 2500 Boulevard de l Université, J1K 2R1 Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada f Faculty of Biology, University of Ljubljana, Kongresni trg 12, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Aspergilli halophilic fungus Mycotreatment Benzo-α-pyrene Phenanthrene Pharmaceutical compound ABSTRACT Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and pharmaceutical compounds (PhC) are xenobiotics present in many saline wastewaters. Although fungi are known for their ability to remove xenobiotics, the potential of halophilic fungi to degrade highly persistent pollutants was not yet investigated. The use of two halophilic fungi, Aspergillus sydowii and Aspergillus destruens, for the elimination of PAH and PhC at saline conditions was studied. In saline synthetic medium both fungi used benzo-α-pyrene and phenanthrene as sole carbon source and removed over 90% of both PAH, A. sydowii due to biodegradation and A. destruens to bioadsorption. They removed 100% of a mixture of fifteen PAH in saline biorefinery wastewater. Test using Cucumis sativus demonstrated that waste- water treated with the two fungi lowered considerably the phytotoxicity. This study is the first demonstration that ascomycetous halophilic fungi, in contrast to other fungi (and in particular basidiomycetes) can be used for mycotreatments under salinity conditions. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2019.02.002 Received 9 December 2018; Received in revised form 30 January 2019; Accepted 1 February 2019 ⁎ Corresponding author at: Centro de Investigación en Dinámica Celular, Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias Básicas y Aplicadas, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos (UAEM), Ave. Universidad 1001, Col. Chamilpa, CP. 62209 Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico. E-mail address: rabg@uaem.mx (R.A. Batista-García). 1 Authors contributed equally to this work. Bioresource Technology 279 (2019) 287–296 Available online 02 February 2019 0960-8524/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T