article · Plant Stress
Toxic contaminants from human activities harm soil fertility, disrupt microbial communities, and threaten human health. Phytoremediation uses plants to clean up contaminated soils through techniques such as phytoextraction and rhizofiltration, offering a cost-effective and environmentally friendly alternative to traditional methods. However, the approach is naturally slow and can negatively impact plant growth. Enhancing phytoremediation through plant-microbe interactions offers a solution, as microbes can boost plant tolerance, degrade pollutants, and support plant growth. Efficiency can be improved by introducing beneficial microbes or stimulating native populations. Furthermore, advanced tools present new avenues for progress. Omics technologies help identify the genetic mechanisms behind pollutant uptake, while CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing allows the precise modification of plant genes to improve metal sequestration and pollutant detoxification, potentially accelerating the cleanup of contaminated land.
Soil contamination threatens agricultural productivity, ecosystems, and public health. Conventional cleanup methods can be costly and disruptive. Understanding how to combine natural plant and microbial processes with modern molecular biology could make green remediation faster and more effective, offering viable, low-impact strategies for restoring degraded land to productive use.
The work highlights technologies relevant to environmental remediation practitioners, biotechnology firms, and agricultural land managers seeking eco-friendly cleanup tools. Applications range from microbe-assisted remediation to gene-edited plants tailored for pollutant degradation and metal sequestration. The advanced approaches discussed, such as CRISPR/Cas9 plant modification and omics discovery, reflect early-stage to translational research requiring further development before commercial deployment.
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• Severe disruption of soil microbial communities due to the presence of toxic contaminants. • The significance of phytoremediation as an efficient pollutant removal approach. • Recent advancements that hold promise for more effective pollutant removal methods. • Insights into state-of-the-art technologies with the potential to revolutionize soil remediation. Toxic pollutants released from various human activities persistently pose significant threats to living organisms, affecting soil fertility, and impacting human health. Among the various remediation approaches, phytoremediation has gained popularity due to its cost-effectiveness and environmentally friendly characteristics. This method involves utilizing plant species to restore polluted soils, emphasizing the intrinsic abilities of plants to remediate contaminated environments. There are various phytoremediation approaches and combinations that have been developed, ranging from phytoextraction to rhizofiltration, each tailored to specific contaminants and environmental conditions. While acknowledging the slow and time-consuming nature of the phytoremediation process and its potential impact on plant growth and development, this review emphasizes the increasing significance of this eco-friendly approach. Moreover, the exploration suggests that leveraging plant-microbe interactions could enhance the efficiency of remediating contaminated areas. Furthermore, understanding the microbial mechanisms involved in phytoremediation is crucial for optimizing remediation outcomes. Microbes play a pivotal role in enhancing plant tolerance to pollutants, facilitating pollutant degradation, and promoting plant growth in contaminated environments. Harnessing the power of microbial communities through bioaugmentation or stimulating indigenous microbial populations can significantly improve phytoremediation efficiency. Emerging omics technologies and the application of CRISPR/Cas9 technology in phytoremediation offer promising avenues for advancing soil remediation efforts. Omics approaches, including genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics, provide insights into the genetic and molecular mechanisms underlying plant responses to pollutants and can aid in identifying key genes or pathways for enhancing phytoremediation efficiency. Meanwhile, CRISPR/Cas9 technology presents an innovative solution for targeted genome editing in plants, enabling precise modification of genes involved in pollutant uptake, tolerance, and detoxification. By engineering plants with enhanced capabilities for metal sequestration or pollutant degradation, CRISPR/Cas9 holds tremendous potential for accelerating the remediation of contaminated soils. This comprehensive review serves as a valuable resource for environmental practitioners and scientists, providing insights into both traditional and innovative technologies that have the potential to transform soil remediation practices, ultimately contributing to a cleaner and healthier environment.
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DOI: 10.1016/j.stress.2024.100578
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