Record ID No. |
4808 |
Author(s) |
Younes Rezaee Danesh, Mehdi Tajbakhsh, Ebrahim Mohammadi Goltapeh, Ajit Varma , 2013 |
Affiliation |
Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran, Email: Y.rdanesh@urmia.ac.ir |
Title |
Mycoremediation of Heavy Metals |
Source. Vol.(no):Page |
Fungi as Bioremediators Soil Biology 32: 245-267p. |
Categories |
Arbuscular Mycorrhiza |
Subjects |
Soil plant relations |
Sub-subjects |
Heavy Metals |
Host |
Plants |
Organism |
Glomeromycota |
Country |
Iran, South Asia |
Abstracts |
The accumulation of heavy metals in agricultural soils is of increasing concern due to the food safety issues and potential health risks as well as its detrimental effects on soil ecosystems. Sources of these elements in soils mainly include natural occurrence derived from parent materials and human activities. Microbial biomass is both a source and sink for nutrients in the soil. It participates in the C, N, P, and S transformations and plays an active role in the degradation of xenobiotic organic compounds. It also helps in the mobilization and immobilization of heavy metals and participates in the formation of soil structure. Microorganisms have the ability to bind metals from aqueous solution. This phenomenon is known as biosorption, and the microorganisms responsible for the process are considered biosorbents. A wide variety of living and dead biomass of bacteria, algae, fungi, and plants is capable of sequestering toxic metals. The fungal biomass used in mycosorption is termed mycosorbent. Mycosorption is a topic of great interest for researchers all over the world. Biosorption consists of several mechanisms that differ according to the fungal species used, the origin of the biomass, and its processing. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (Glomeromycota) are ubiquitous soil microbes considered essential for the survival and growth of plants in nutrient-deficient soils. They are frequently seen as a tolerance mechanism of plants in highly metal-polluted soils. Mycorrhizas constitute a bridge for nutrient transport from soils to plant roots. At higher soil metal levels, AMF are expected to reduce soil metal bioavailability since metals are sequestered in extraradical hyphae, therefore resulting in lower metal uptake in AM than non-AM plants. A range of environmental factors including soil metal concentrations and their bioavailability, soil absorption/desorption characteristics, as well as endogenous factors (e.g., the fungal properties and inherent heavy metal uptake capacity of plants) may influence the uptake of metals by mycorrhizal plants. |