5 - Endophyte-induced bioremediation of toxic metals/metalloids

Abstract

Toxic metals and metalloids release to the environment has been increasing unremittingly as a matter of course of industrial activities and strenuous technological progression. Heavy metal contaminated soil poses an elusive threat to the environment and human health. Therefore, in order to maintain a good quality of soil along with improving its health, different technologies had been developed and continuous efforts are under progression to refine these technologies so that they will become easier to use, tenable, and economically viable. For remedying the soil polluted with metals and metalloids different physiochemical approaches have been used widely, however phytoremediation has been an environmentally friendly, low cost and effective method for removal of toxicants from contaminated soil and environment. This book chapter deals with the utilization of plant-associated endophytes which could overcome these constraints and assist plants to accumulate a higher amount of metals without increasing the phytotoxicity. Several endophytic fungi and bacteria have been reported in this chapter showing the potential of degrading toxic contaminants (metals and metalloids) into toxic free form and this endophyte-assisted phytoremediation act as a promising technology for in situ remediation of highly contaminated environment. In this chapter various important characteristics of endophytic fungi and bacteria have been discussed which leads them as valuable microorganism resources for bioremediation of multiple toxic metals contaminated environment. This chapter lays particular emphasis on eco-friendly and sustainable approaches for toxic metal and metalloid contaminants removal from the environment, highlighting the advances and consequences of the endophyte-induced remediation process as well as their utilization in cleaning up toxic pollutants from the contaminated sites.