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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Mater.
Sec. Biomaterials and Bio-Inspired Materials
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmats.2024.1396081

Exploring Fungal Potential for Microbial-Induced Calcite Precipitation (MICP) in Bio-Cement Production

Provisionally accepted
Inderpal Devgon Inderpal Devgon 1Rohan Sachan Rohan Sachan 1Khusbhoo . Khusbhoo . 1Mukesh Kumar Mukesh Kumar 1Prof. Dr. Abdel Rahman M. Al -Tawaha Prof. Dr. Abdel Rahman M. Al -Tawaha 2Arun Karnwal Arun Karnwal 1*Tabarak Malik Tabarak Malik 3*
  • 1 Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, Punjab, India
  • 2 Al Hussein Technical University, Amman, Amman, Jordan
  • 3 Department of Biomedical sciences, Jimma University, Jimma, Ethiopia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Microbial-induced calcite precipitation (MICP) involves various microorganisms, such as bacteria, fungi, and algae. This study focuses on producing bio-cement using fungal species and selecting potential candidates isolated from alkaline soil of different regions of Punjab, namely Majha, Malwa, and Doaba. The selection of fungi isolates capable of bio-cement production involves several tests, including urease assay and calcium precipitation, Isolates having high urease enzyme production and able to perform calcite precipitation are selected for instrumental analyses such as X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The isolates selected for further analysis are S1(3) with 8.879±2.94 , S1(18) with 8.421±0.13, and S4(1) with 10.057±0.45 urease activity and least free calcium ions that are 2.337±0.5, 3.339±0.5 and 4.074±0.1 respectively. The confirmation of calcite precipitation through XRD and FESEM. For XRD the calcite precipitation with sharp crystalline peaks for S1(3), S1(18) and S4(1) are shown and also, the calcite precipitation is evident in the micrographs of FESEM. These combined results confirm the potential of urease-positive fungi to facilitate calcite production, which could lead to bio-cement development in future research.

    Keywords: Fungal calcite precipitation, Urease-positive fungi, Bio-cement production, Environmental mineralization, Fungal bio-mineralization

    Received: 05 Mar 2024; Accepted: 04 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Devgon, Sachan, ., Kumar, Al -Tawaha, Karnwal and Malik. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Arun Karnwal, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, 144411, Punjab, India
    Tabarak Malik, Department of Biomedical sciences, Jimma University, Jimma, Ethiopia

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