White Rot Fungi: Nature’s Scavenger

Abstract

The world’s worst offenders in terms of pollution are related to the xenobiotic organopollutants, often toxic and recalcitrant in nature. They have complex aromatic structures which are persistent and recalcitrant, for example, xenobiotics such as phenols, plastics, hydrocarbons, paints, synthetic dyes, pesticides, insecticides, paper and pulp mill effluents, and pharmaceuticals. Applications of physicochemical methods are quite expensive to operate; moreover, they introduce secondary pollutants during the “remediation” process. The white rot fungi technology is eco-friendly and cost-effective and thus has emerged as a viable method for bioremediation in a wide range of synthetic dyes. Moreover, they do not require preconditioning to a particular pollutant, tolerate high concentrations of pollutants and nutrient limitation induces the production of extracellular ligninolytic enzymes with broad substrate specificity which includes several kinds of laccases, peroxidases, and oxidases producing H2O2. They utilize soluble as well as insoluble hazardous compounds as a nutrient source and convert them to simple fragmented forms. White rot fungi also remove the pollutants from the effluents by absorption, adsorption, and accumulation. Recently, many researchers have successfully exploited white rot fungi, for example, Pleurotus ostreatus, Phanerochaete chrysosporium, Tramates hirsute, T. versicolor, Lentinus edodes, and Trichoderma longibrachiatum for bioremediation of xenobiotics. The aim of this chapter is to address the present status and development of bioremediation strategies for synthetic textile dyes using white rot fungi and their enzymes.