Hairy roots as a source for phytoremediation

Abstract

"Phytoremediation," application of green plants to process and regulate the waste materials in soil, water, and the air is an important part of the new field of ecological engineering. Phytoremediation has been addressed as among the promising and eco-friendly processes for the decontamination of several environmental pollutants. In recent years, in vitro plant cultures play an important role in the phytoremediation process. This chapter focuses on the development of hairy root clones by using Agrobacterium rhizogenes in various plant species and their application in the remediation process. It is well-known that enzymes that are expected to be necessitated in the detoxifying process of lethal compounds. In view of the ease of employing this in vitro culture method as a transgenic arena, and interdependent the huge progress in functional genomics studies, it is required to develop novel hairy root cultures that capable to express, provoke, and metabolize additional genes in a greater efficiently under in vitro and in vivo. The present chapter summarized the differences between how hairy roots are more helpful in converting toxic to nontoxic forms comparatively with normal roots. This chapter also reports the most up-to-date achievements of using hairy root cultures in the phytoremediation process. This information is essential for assessing the feasibility of a remediation process prior to its filed uptake.