Biotechnological approaches to remediate soil and water using plant-microbe interactions

Abstract

A fast increase in the industrialization causes environmental pollution and contaminates water and soil throughout the world. The plants can also accumulate and store the toxic compounds/pollutants in their tissues and ultimately enter into the food chain. Hazardous pollutants in soil affect not only both animal and human health but also plant’s growth. The symbiotic association between plants and microbe in the rhizosphere of plants or endophytic association between them is the suitable solution to improve remediation of soil and water pollution from the environment. Plant-microbe interactions enhance the plant health but also help them in well acclimatization in environment. Phytoremediation is a slow process in comparison to other remediation technologies. In plant-microbial interactions, plant roots help microorganisms to reach deeper in soil and improve aeration and nutrients supply, and the endophytic microorganisms allow degradation of pollutants within the plants. Genetic engineering can be used to improve the remediation efficiency of microorganisms and plants and also to increase the plant-microbial interactions to degrade those toxic substances which were impossible to degrade by naturally occurring bacteria and plants.