Elsevier

Biotechnology Advances

Volume 30, Issue 6, November–December 2012, Pages 1562-1574
Biotechnology Advances

Research review paper
Perspectives of plant-associated microbes in heavy metal phytoremediation

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biotechadv.2012.04.011Get rights and content

Abstract

"Phytoremediation" know-how to do-how is rapidly expanding and is being commercialized by harnessing the phyto-microbial diversity. This technology employs biodiversity to remove/contain pollutants from the air, soil and water. In recent years, there has been a considerable knowledge explosion in understanding plant-microbes-heavy metals interactions. Novel applications of plant-associated microbes have opened up promising areas of research in the field of phytoremediation technology. Various metabolites (e.g., 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid deaminase, indole-3-acetic acid, siderophores, organic acids, etc.) produced by plant-associated microbes (e.g., plant growth promoting bacteria, mycorrhizae) have been proposed to be involved in many biogeochemical processes operating in the rhizosphere. The salient functions include nutrient acquisition, cell elongation, metal detoxification and alleviation of biotic/abiotic stress in plants. Rhizosphere microbes accelerate metal mobility, or immobilization. Plants and associated microbes release inorganic and organic compounds possessing acidifying, chelating and/or reductive power. These functions are implicated to play an essential role in plant metal uptake. Overall the plant-associated beneficial microbes enhance the efficiency of phytoremediation process directly by altering the metal accumulation in plant tissues and indirectly by promoting the shoot and root biomass production. The present work aims to provide a comprehensive review of some of the promising processes mediated by plant-associated microbes and to illustrate how such processes influence heavy metal uptake through various biogeochemical processes including translocation, transformation, chelation, immobilization, solubilization, precipitation, volatilization and complexation of heavy metals ultimately facilitating phytoremediation.

Section snippets

Microbe assisted phytoremediation

Heavy metal contamination of soils has received considerable attention in the contemporary science. Application of biological processes for decontaminating the contaminated/polluted sites is a challenging task because heavy metals cannot be degraded and hence persist in the soil (Kidd et al., 2009, Lebeau et al., 2008, Ma et al., 2011a, Rajkumar et al., 2010). In order to cleanup the contaminated sites, heavy metals should be extracted and concentrated by an appropriate technique for proper

Plant-associated microbes improve heavy metal mobilization/immobilization

Plants growing in metal contaminated soils harbor a diverse group of microorganisms (Idris et al., 2004, Zarei et al., 2008, Zarei et al., 2010) that are capable of tolerating high concentration of metals and providing a number of benefits to both the soil and the plant. Among the microorganisms involved in heavy metal phytoremediation, the rhizosphere bacteria deserve special attention because they can directly improve the phytoremediation process by changing the metal bioavailability through

Plant growth promotion by plant-associated microbes

A small alteration in the physico-chemical-biological properties of rhizosphere soils caused by biotic/abiotic stress can have a dramatic effect on the plant-microbe interaction. The metal resistant-plant-associated microbes have been reported for potential to stimulate the acquisition of plant nutrients, reduce metal toxicity, immobilize/mobilize heavy metals in the soil, recycle the nutrients, improve plant health and control plant pathogens (Aafi et al., 2012, Glick, 2010, Hayat et al., 2010

Conclusion

Since the plant-associated microbes possess the capability of plant growth promotion and/or metal mobilization/immobilization, there has been increasing interest in the possibility of manipulating plant-microbe interactions in metal contaminated soils (Aafi et al., 2012, Azcón et al., 2010, Braud et al., 2009b, Dimkpa et al., 2008, Dimkpa et al., 2009a, Dimkpa et al., 2009b, Hrynkiewicz et al., 2012, Kuffner et al., 2010, Luo et al., 2011, Luo et al., 2012, Maria et al., 2011, Mastretta et al.,

Acknowledgements

M. R acknowledges the financial support received in the form of Ramalingaswami re-entry fellowship from Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India. M. R also acknowledges the kind support and encouragement extended by Dr. S. R. Wate, Director, NEERI, Nagpur. Authors are grateful to anonymous referees and editor for critical reading and improvement of the manuscript.

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