Endophytes as Pollutant-Degrading Agents: Current Trends and Perspectives

Abstract

Bioremediation is based on biological systems, bacteria, fungi, and plants. They are effective systems to treat a polluted site because they are able to modify the chemical structure of the contaminant into less hazardous end products. Investigations regarding the theme have immensely accelerated during the last years, what originated a great number of articles involving the terms “phytoremediation” and “bioremediation.” Initially the term phytoremediation was defined as being the use of plants for the degradation of polluting hazardous chemicals. However, the discovery that healthy plants could be containing endosymbiotic groups of microorganisms, often bacteria or fungi, led to the notion that these microorganisms could be, partly at least, responsible for the degradation of the pollutants. This review focuses on this proposed partnership in the bioremediation process, taking into account investigations conducted during the last 5 years.