The significance of plant-associated microbial rhizosphere for the degradation of xenobiotic compounds

Abstract

Currently, remediation of xenobiotic compounds (heavy metals and hydrocarbons, pesticides, persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in the soil and water has become a major problem. Xenobiotic compounds in the soil exert alternations in the functionality of ecologically and agronomically important soil microflora. These chemicals get accumulated in lipid tissues of higher organisms and cause many problems to the human health (like immunosuppression, hormone disruption, reproductive abnormalities and cancer). Remediation of xenobiotic pollutants by the conventional approaches based on physicochemical methods is economically and technically challenging. But bioremediation techniques based on plant roots and their associated microbes are the most promising, efficient, cost-effective and sustainable technology. A variety of chemicals like organic acids, amino acids and phenolic compounds are secreted by such plants as root exudates. These compounds play a significant role in the interaction between plant root and microbes and also are helpful to stimulate the survival rate and the efficiency of microbes against xenobiotic pollutants. In this chapter, we describe how plant root-associated microbes help in the remediation of xenobiotic compounds and the impact of xenobiotic compounds on microbial community as well as their application feasibility on the basis of these attributes.