Identification of beneficial mycorrhizal fungi for the remediation of the Kam Kotia Mine site

安大略省蒂明斯附近的Kam Kotia矿场是安大略省采矿造成的最严重的环境灾难之一。由于pH值非常低，铜和锌的毒性水平很高，前矿场周围地区几乎没有植物，每年的径流将受污染的水排放到邻近的河流中。麦金托什·佩里咨询公司的任务是为该地点制定一项植被重建计划，以努力控制污染，防止重金属进一步流出该地点。他们已经确定了一套能够在该地点定居的植物，但还没有研究过土壤中的根际真菌群落。为了帮助重建植被，我们将确定在金科蒂亚土壤中寄生的菌根真菌，以及能够耐受有毒条件的植物。我们将使用基因组测序来准确地鉴定真菌，并建立培养技术来纯化和培养真菌。然后，我们将测试这些真菌在受污染的土壤中促进植物生长的能力。该项目将探讨是否有一个菌根真菌群落可以增强植物在Kam Kotia受污染的土壤上生长的能力。最终，这些菌根真菌的鉴定可能会对加拿大其他地点的植被重建计划产生影响。

The Kam Kotia mine site near Timmins Ontario is one of the worst environmental disasters due to mining in Ontario. As a result of a very low pH and toxic levels of copper and zinc, the area surrounding the former mine site is almost devoid of plants and yearly runoffs send contaminated water into the neighbouring rivers. McIntosh Perry Consulting has been tasked with developing a re-vegetation plan for the site in an effort to contain the contamination and prevent further flow of heavy metals away from the site. They have identified a suite of plants that have been able to colonize the site, but have not looked at the community of benficial mycorrhizal fungi that reside in the soil. To help in this re-vegetation plan, we will identify the mycorrhizal fungi that reside in the soil at Kam Kotia in association with the plants that are able to tolerate the toxic conditions. We will use genomic sequencing to accurately identify the fungi and established culturing techniques to purify and cultivate the fungi. We will then test the ability of these fungi to enhance the growth of plants in contaminated soil. This project will address whether there is a community of mycorrhizal fungi that could enhance the ability of plants to grow on the contaminated soil at Kam Kotia. Ultimately the identification of these mycorrhizal fungi could have an impact on re-vegetation plans for other sites in Canada