Black Fungus Found in Chernobyl Eats Harmful Radiation

Tags: Chernobyl + Fungus

The research began with the discovery of black fungus growing on the walls of the damaged, highly radioactive Chernobyl nuclear reactor and collected by robots.

The fungus was rich with melanin, the same pigment that gives human skin its color, protecting the skin from solar and ultraviolet radiation. Melanin is found in many, if not most, fungal species.

"The fungal kingdom comprises more species than any other plant or animal kingdom," said researcher Arturo Casadevall, an immunologist at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.

Nuclear and other high-energy reactions give off ionizing radiation — dangerous rays and particles that can damage genes and thus cause mutations, and eventually cancer.

"In general we think of radiation as something bad or harmful. Here we have a situation where these fungi appear to benefit, which is unexpected," Casadevall told LiveScience.

For example, the researchers exposed two kinds of fungi — one that naturally contained melanin (Wangiella dermatitidis) and another that scientists induced to make the pigment (Crytococcus neoformans) — to levels of ionizing radiation about 500 times higher than normal, the doses one might see at high altitudes where atmospheric shielding from cosmic rays is lessened.

Both species grew significantly faster, as detailed in the May 23 issue of the journal PLoS ONE.

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