Influence of heavy metals on production and activity of pectinolytic enzymes in ericoid mycorrhizal fungi

Ericoid mycorrhizal fungi increase the ability of their host plants to colonise soils polluted with heavy metal ions, although the mechanisms are not clearly understood. Two mycorrhizal mycelia of Oidiodendron maius isolated from contaminated soil were previously shown to tolerate high concentrations of heavy metal ions in the growth medium. The influence of zinc ions on the secretion and activity of polygalacturonase (PG), an extracellular enzyme that hydrolyses the pectin component of the plant cell walls, was investigated because of their significance during saprotrophic growth. Two major PG isoforms expressed both in the absence and in the presence of increasing concentrations of zinc ions were identified. The PG isoforms were purified from the tolerant Oidiodendron strains as well as from ericoid fungal isolates from non-polluted soils. Addition of increasing concentrations of Zn and Cd ions to the purified enzymes resulted in an increase of PG activity of both tolerant and non tolerant O. maius isolates at doses below 1 mM. By contrast, at the same metal ion concentrations PG activity of a sterile isolate from non-polluted soil was unaffected or slightly inhibited. We speculate that the response of PG to heavy metal ions may have been a pre-adaptive factor for the colonisation of polluted soils by O. maius