Basidiomycetes to the rescue: Mycoremediation of metal-organics co-contaminated soils.

Lea Traxler, Katrin Krause, Erika Kothe
Author Information
  1. Lea Traxler: Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Institute of Microbiology, Jena, Germany.
  2. Katrin Krause: Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Institute of Microbiology, Jena, Germany.
  3. Erika Kothe: Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Institute of Microbiology, Jena, Germany. Electronic address: erika.kothe@uni-jena.de.

Abstract

The increasing need for metals leads to contaminated post-mining landscapes. At the same time, the contamination with organic, recalcitrant contamination increases. This poses a problem of reuse of large areas, often co-contaminated with both, metals, and organic pollutants. For the remediation of areas contaminated with multiple contaminants and combining many stress factors, technical solutions including groundwater treatment, where necessary, have been devised. However, this is applied to highly contaminated, small sites. The reuse of larger, co-contaminated landscapes remains a major challenge. Mycoremediation with fungi offers a good option for such areas. Fungi cope particularly well with heterogeneous conditions due to their adaptability and their large hyphal network. This chapter summarizes the advantages of basidiomycetes with a focus on wood rot fungi in terms of their ability to tolerate metals, radionuclides, and organic contaminants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. It also shows how these fungi can reduce toxicity of contaminants to other organisms including plants to allow for restored land-use. The processes based on diverse molecular mechanisms are introduced and their use for mycoremediation is discussed.

Keywords

MeSH Term

Basidiomycota
Biodegradation, Environmental
Metals
Soil Microbiology
Soil Pollutants

Chemicals

Metals
Soil Pollutants

Word Cloud

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