Abstract
Soil metal contamination associated with productive activities is a global issue. Metals are not biodegradable and tend to accumulate in soils, posing potential risks to surrounding ecosystems and human health. Plant-based techniques (phytotechnologies) for the in situ remediation of metal-polluted soils have been developed, but these have some limitations. Phytotechnologies are a group of technologies that take advantage of the ability of certain plants to remediate soil, water, and air resources to rehabilitate ecosystem services in managed landscapes. Regarding soil metal pollution, the main objectives are in situ stabilization (phytostabilization) and the removal of contaminants (phytoextraction). Genetic engineering strategies such as gene editing, stacking genes, and transformation, among others, may improve the phytoextraction potential of plants by enhancing their ability to accumulate and tolerate metals and metalloids. This review discusses proven strategies to enhance phytoextraction efficiency and future perspectives on phytotechnologies.
Highlights
Due to industrial, mining, and agricultural activities, increasing soil HM concentrations have become an urgent global problem [1,2]
The results showed that the presence of Medicago sativa can significantly increase the height and biomass of R. communis, and there was a greater impact on the chlorophyll content of R. communis at higher pollution levels
The results indicated that inoculating S. nigrum L. with M. circinelloides enhanced its efficiency for the phytoremediation of soil contaminated with Pb [83]
Summary
Due to industrial, mining, and agricultural activities, increasing soil HM concentrations have become an urgent global problem [1,2]. Exposure to high HM concentrations can cause severe effects for plant growth and development, such as photosynthesis inhibition, the disruption of cell membrane integrity, root browning, interveinal chlorosis, and, wilting and death [8,9,10]. All of these effects result from the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) such as superoxide (O2 − ), hydrogen peroxide (H2 O2 ), and hydroxyl radicals (OH ) via Haber–Weiss and Fenton reactions [10,11]. Metallophytes have developed certain HM tolerance mechanisms, including metal exclusion, metal accumulation, metal chelation, and the binding of metals by strong ligands, such as cysteine-rich proteins including metallothioneins (MTs) and thiol-rich peptides, called phytochelatins (PCs) [11,13,16]
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