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Radiotrophic fungi are fungi that can perform the hypothetical biological process called radiosynthesis, which means using ionizing radiation as an energy source to drive metabolism. It has been claimed that radiotrophic fungi have been found in extreme environments such as in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant .
Beginning in the 1990s, researchers at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant uncovered some 200 species of apparently radiotrophic fungi containing the pigment melanin on the walls of the reactor room and in the surrounding soil.
It was reported that some fungi had the ability of growing into, feeding, generating spores and decomposing pieces of graphite from destroyed reactor No. 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station, which is contaminated with high concentrations of cesium, plutonium and cobalt radionuclides. They were called radiotrophic fungi. [36]
The Chernobyl site in northern Ukraine has been filled with deadly radiation since the 1986 nuclear meltdown, but a new study shows that microscopic worms at the site seem to be unaffected by the ...
The Chernobyl disaster began on 26 April 1986 with the explosion of the No. 4 reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear ... melanin-rich radiotrophic fungi that grow on the ...
This helped researchers use the Chernobyl city dogs as a control population to compare with dogs living closer to the nuclear power plant. Pack of wolves visits a scent station in the Chernobyl ...
Cladosporium sphaerospermum is a radiotrophic fungus [1] [2] belonging to the genus Cladosporium and was described in 1886 by Albert Julius Otto Penzig from the decaying leaves and branches of Citrus. [3] It is a dematiaceous (darkly-pigmented) fungus characterized by slow growth and largely asexual reproduction.
Radiotrophic fungi is a perfect example of natural selection taking place after a chemical accident. Radiotrophic fungi appears to use the pigment melanin to convert gamma radiation into chemical energy for growth and were first discovered in 2007 as black molds growing inside and around the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.