Record ID No. |
4788 |
Author(s) |
Mozhgan Sepehri, Habib Khodaverdiloo, Mehdi Zarei , 2013 |
Affiliation |
Department of Soil Science, College of Agriculture, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, 84156-83111, Iran, Email: msepehri@cc.iut.ac.ir |
Title |
Fungi and Their Role in Phytoremediation of Heavy Metal-Contaminated Soils |
Source. Vol.(no):Page |
Fungi as Bioremediators Soil Biology 32: 313-345p. |
Categories |
Arbuscular Mycorrhiza |
Subjects |
Pollution |
Sub-subjects |
Soil pollution |
Host |
Plants |
Organism |
Microbes (Arbuscular mycorrhiza) |
Country |
Iran, South Asia |
Abstracts |
Pollution of the biosphere by heavy metals (HM) is a global threat that has accelerated dramatically since the beginning of industrial revolution. HMs can accumulate in soil and, in turn, adversely affect the microbial population density and physicochemical properties of soils, leading to the loss of soil fertility and yields of crops. The HMs generally cannot be biologically degraded to more or less toxic products and, hence, persist in the environment. Conventional methods used for metal detoxification produce large quantities of toxic products and are not cost-effective. The use of microorganisms (bioremediation) and plants (phytoremediation) to remediate polluted environments has provided an alternative to conventional methods for the cleaning-up of soils contaminated by metals. Phytoremediation mostly involves the use of metal-hyperaccumulating plants to remove, transform, or stabilize the contaminants, but this technique is time consuming. In other words, plants with exceptionally high metal-accumulating capacity often have a slow growth rate and produce limited amounts of biomass when the concentration of metal in the contaminated soil is very high and toxic. Microorganisms also play important roles in the environmental fate of toxic metals and metalloids with a multiplicity of physicochemical and biological mechanisms affecting transformations between soluble and insoluble phases. Furthermore, by establishing effective relationships with plants, microorganisms are able to induce the chance of success of phytoremediation. Fungi, particularly arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), associated with hyperaccumulating or non-hyperaccumulating plants have repeatedly been demonstrated to alleviate HM stress of plants, although there is a need to completely understand the ecological complexities of their interactions with the host plant and soil system and their better exploitation as consortia in remediation strategies employed for contaminated soils. This chapter provides an overview on the developments in the role of fungi particularly AMF in phytorestoration of HM-contaminated soils. |