The European Pince Cone Lepidella and silver

The European Pince Cone Lepidella (Amanita strobiliformis) is a fungus hyperaccumulating silver in sporocarps, with concentrations exceeding even 1,000 mg/kg in dry weight. Despite this fact, it grows in soils with natural Ag concentrations below 1 mg/kg. In the recent paper published in the Science of the Total Environment, the team of the Institute of Geology CAS focused on two populations of A. strobiliformis in Prague in co-operation with researchers from the Nuclear Physics Institute CAS, University of Chemistry and Technology, Institute of Microbiology CAS, and Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem. The distribution of mycelium below sporocarps was investigated by the use of the quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Lead isotopic fingerprinting was used to trace the metal transfer from soil to the sporocarps. According to the results, silver is likely accumulated from the 12 cm thick topsoil layer. At the site of Klíčov, a minimum soil volume of 0.006 to 0.079 m3 is required per sporocarp to accumulate the corresponding amount of Ag which represents a minimum area of 0.05 to 0.65 m2.