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Plant-Microbe Interactions in Agro-Ecological Perspectives pp 593–606Cite as

Fungi: An Effective Tool for Bioremediation

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Abstract

Pesticides which are hydrophobic in nature are often adsorbed as well as retained by the soil particles and organic matter, whereas, the water soluble pesticides enter the surface and ground water bodies and can enter drinking water wells causing health problems by entering food chain directly. Currently, one of the most effective and common remediation practices is incineration, but it is associated with a number of disadvantages. One promising alternative treatment strategy to incineration is bioremediation which is to exploit the ability of microorganisms for removing pollutants from contaminated sites. Fungi are among the potential candidates of bioremediation as they are natural decomposers of waste matter and secrete several extracellular enzymes capable of decomposing lignin and cellulose, the two essential components of plant fiber. It is necessary to correctly identify and select the fungal species to target a particular pollutant to achieve a successful mycoremediation. White-rot fungi possess a number of advantages in relation to degradation of insoluble chemicals and toxic environmental pollutants that can be exploited in bioremediation systems. The accessibility and bioavailability of the pollutants serve as a limitation in bioremediation including fungal-mediated bioremediation of pesticides. As a future perspective, there is a need not only to isolate and characterize the novel pesticide mineralizing fungal strains but also to characterize the chemistry, toxicity, and environmental fates of the metabolites produced during fungal biodegradation of pesticides.

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Acknowledgement

The authors are thankful to ICAR (AMAAS) for sanction of project “Degradation and effective utilization of agrowastes through technologies involving mushrooms or macrofungi.”

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Plant Pathology, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Jammu, Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir, 180009, India

    Sachin Gupta

  2. Division of Biochemistry, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Jammu, Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir, 180009, India

    Anshu Wali & Moni Gupta

  3. ICAR-Directorate of Mushroom Research, Chambaghat, Solan, Himachal Pradesh, 173213, India

    Sudheer Kumar Annepu

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  1. Sachin Gupta
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  2. Anshu Wali
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  3. Moni Gupta
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  4. Sudheer Kumar Annepu
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Correspondence to Sachin Gupta .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. ICAR-National Bureau of Agriculturally Important Microorganisms, Maunath Bhanjan, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Dhananjaya Pratap Singh

  2. Department of Mycology & Plant Pathology, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Harikesh Bahadur Singh

  3. Chhattisgarh Swami Vivekanand Technical University, Durg, Chhattisgarh, India

    Ratna Prabha

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Gupta, S., Wali, A., Gupta, M., Annepu, S.K. (2017). Fungi: An Effective Tool for Bioremediation. In: Singh, D., Singh, H., Prabha, R. (eds) Plant-Microbe Interactions in Agro-Ecological Perspectives. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6593-4_24

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