Zachary Remus '27

Chernobyl is one of if not the most devastating man-made disasters in history. Everyone knows the name of this disaster, but what have been its long-term effects on the world, and what solutions are being reviewed? The release of a mass amount of radiation affected all animals, plant life, water sources, and the environment near the explosion. Scientists were baffled by the weight of destruction and were overwhelmed by the daunting road to a better future. But lucky for them nature decided to contribute to the radiation cleaning.

In the 1980’s Ukrainian scientists studying the dangerous interior of Chernobyl’s destroyed Reactor 4, found that a black mold-like fungus was growing along the ground, walls, and pools of radioactive water. These fungi known as Wangiella dermatitidis (now Exophiala dermatitidis) and Cryptococcus neoformans, have been observed by Professor Ekaterina Dadachova and colleagues at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York to grow towards and specifically thrive on gamma and radiation. The fungi that experienced heavy radiation, compared to the fungi that didn’t, gained more biomass and gained the biomass a lot quicker. They also noticed that the radiation was changing the fungus metabolism.

However, the true key to this fungi’s ability to thrive and convert energy from radiation was melanin. Melanin is what most organisms use as UV protection, but the fungi seemed to be using it to convert the radiation to energy much as a plant would with sunlight. The fungi would not switch on this melanin energy-converting system unless it was placed in a highly radioactive environment without vegetation. Another fact to draw on is that when the Earth was first conceived it had much higher radiation levels meaning that these fungi protocol could just be a long dormant gene that doesn’t need to be activated unless needed. Heavily melanized fungi have also been found growing on the outside of space stations, which are constantly being bombarded with solar radiation, showing their versatility even in the most extreme of environments. A popular belief concerning this topic is that because fungi are more complex eukaryotes, they value the protection of their nucleus meaning they will establish defenses around it such as defenses to radiation.

So, what are the next steps now that these radiotrophic fungi have been discovered? Well, now at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, Dadachova hopes to discover more of these fungi and learn the purpose and possible values of these black fungi discovered at Chernobyl. The current research shows lead towards a possible use of the fungi as a strong protectant against UV and other forms of radiation. This application could apply to possibly future space suits for astronauts with higher grade radiation protection. More importantly, there is the possibility of the fungal properties being used to turn the radiation of areas such as Chernobyl into a clean energy source. Unfortunately, this field lacks a lot of conviction and research. This means that for now a way to harness the radiation through scientific exploration remains unknown and the fungi remain solo in their adventure of a cleaner future.

Bibliography:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2677413/

https://www.rsb.org.uk/biologist-features/eating-gamma-radiation-for-breakfast