Novel Insights into Phytoremediation of Pollutants

A special issue of Life (ISSN 2075-1729). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Science".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (18 November 2022) | Viewed by 7143

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
College of Environmental Science & Engineering, Guilin University of Technology, Guilin 541004, China
Interests: plant transport, detoxification, and storage of environmental contaminants; plant regulation strategy in response to environmental stresses; plant–microbiome interaction
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The presence of pollutants (e.g., metals, ionic pollutants, POPs, phthalate acid esters, antibiotics, microplastics) in environmental matrices (i.e., air, water, and soil) is of major concern worldwide. Phytoremediation is a green technology method to remove pollutants from environmental matrices—an eco-friendly option in comparison to existing conventional methods. However, numerous problems still need to be addressed for the successful transformation of this technology from lab to land.

The Life Special Issue entitled “Novel Insights into Phytoremediation of Pollutants” will collect original research and review papers, short communications, and viewpoints about phytoremediation by the leading experts in this field. The scope covers all aspects of phytoremediation, including, but not limited to, the following interesting and significant topics: 1) ‘high-throughput’ screening plants; 2) estimation (or prediction) of the removal rate of different plants for varied pollutants; 3) improvement in the removal rate of plants by modern chemical, biological, and genetic engineering tools; 4) mechanisms for pollutant uptake, transport, and metabolism in plants; 5) involvement of the microbiome in phytoremediation; 6) estimation (or prediction) of toxic effects of different pollutants in plants; 7) the physiological, biochemical, and molecular response in plants; 8) omics technology in response to different chemical exposures; 9) sustainable harvesting and utilization of waste after phytoremediation. This collection will be very useful for researchers from the entire scientific community.

We kindly invite you to submit your latest work, which may be included in this Special Issue. Please contact the editors before preparing the manuscript for a pre-arrangement of the topic.

Prof. Dr. Xiao-Zhang Yu
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Life is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

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Keywords

  • environmental toxicology
  • environmental remediation by plant–microbe interaction
  • environmental pollutant removal (heavy metals, POCs, etc.)
  • detoxification
  • hyperaccumulators
  • molecular biology
  • phytotoxicity

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 1839 KiB  
Article
Trace Element Uptake by Willows Used for the Phytoremediation of Biosolids
by Angela Contangelo, Juergen Esperschuetz and Brett H. Robinson
Life 2023, 13(1), 243; https://doi.org/10.3390/life13010243 - 16 Jan 2023
Viewed by 1374
Abstract
The land application of biosolids can result in the unacceptable accumulation of Trace Elements (TEs) in agricultural soil and potentially introduce xenobiotics and pathogens into the food chain. Phytoremediation of biosolids aims to minimize this risk, while producing valuable biomass. Willows, well known [...] Read more.
The land application of biosolids can result in the unacceptable accumulation of Trace Elements (TEs) in agricultural soil and potentially introduce xenobiotics and pathogens into the food chain. Phytoremediation of biosolids aims to minimize this risk, while producing valuable biomass. Willows, well known to accumulate zinc (Zn), are used extensively in farming systems for soil conservation, shelter and as feed supplements with demonstrable health benefits. Potentially, biosolids phytoremediation could occur on marginal lands adjacent to farmlands where willows are grown for supplementary fodder. We aimed to determine the uptake and distribution of Zn and other TEs in willows grown on soils amended with biosolids and biosolids blended with biochar, with a view to their use as stock fodder. In the Canterbury Region, New Zealand, we grew Salix ‘tangaio’ (S. matsudana X S. alba) in a greenhouse trial and field study. The biomass production of the willows was unaffected by biosolids and increased by the biosolids+biochar mixture. The addition of 4% biosolids (w/w) to the soil resulted in a foliar Zn concentration of 600–1000 mg kg−1, some 25 times higher than the average New Zealand pasture. Zinc concentrations were highest in the bottom leaves and increased throughout the season. Biosolids addition doubled the copper (Cu) concentration to 10 mg kg−1. Adding biochar to the system reduced the plant uptake of Cu and to a lesser extent Zn, while cadmium (Cd) uptake was unaffected. For Cd, Cu, and Zn, plant uptake was a function of the Ca(NO3)2-extractable concentration, both in greenhouse experiments and the field trial. Future work should determine the changes in plant TE uptake over several growing seasons. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Novel Insights into Phytoremediation of Pollutants)
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11 pages, 1576 KiB  
Article
Natural and Technical Phytoremediation of Oil-Contaminated Soil
by Leonid Panchenko, Anna Muratova, Ekaterina Dubrovskaya, Sergey Golubev and Olga Turkovskaya
Life 2023, 13(1), 177; https://doi.org/10.3390/life13010177 - 07 Jan 2023
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2579
Abstract
Natural and technical phytoremediation approaches were compared for their efficacy in decontaminating oil-polluted soil. We examined 20 oil-contaminated sites of 800 to 12,000 m2 each, with different contamination types (fresh or aged) and levels (4.2–27.4 g/kg). The study was conducted on a [...] Read more.
Natural and technical phytoremediation approaches were compared for their efficacy in decontaminating oil-polluted soil. We examined 20 oil-contaminated sites of 800 to 12,000 m2 each, with different contamination types (fresh or aged) and levels (4.2–27.4 g/kg). The study was conducted on a field scale in the industrial and adjacent areas of a petroleum refinery. Technical remediation with alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.), ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.), nitrogen fertilizer, and soil agrotechnical treatment was used to clean up 10 sites contaminated by oil hydrocarbons (average concentration, 13.7 g/kg). In technical phytoremediation, the per-year decontamination of soil was as high as 72–90%, whereas in natural phytoremediation (natural attenuation with native vegetation) at 10 other oil-contaminated sites, per-year decontamination was as high as that only after 5 years. Rhizodegradation is supposed as the principal mechanisms of both phytoremediation approaches. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Novel Insights into Phytoremediation of Pollutants)
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14 pages, 2286 KiB  
Article
Metagenomic Analysis of Garden Soil-Derived Microbial Consortia and Unveiling Their Metabolic Potential in Mitigating Toxic Hexavalent Chromium
by Nidhi Singh, Veer Singh, Sachchida Nand Rai, Emanuel Vamanu and Mohan P. Singh
Life 2022, 12(12), 2094; https://doi.org/10.3390/life12122094 - 13 Dec 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1765
Abstract
Soil microbial communities connect to the functional environment and play an important role in the biogeochemical cycle and waste degradation. The current study evaluated the distribution of the core microbial population of garden soil in the Varanasi region of Uttar Pradesh, India and [...] Read more.
Soil microbial communities connect to the functional environment and play an important role in the biogeochemical cycle and waste degradation. The current study evaluated the distribution of the core microbial population of garden soil in the Varanasi region of Uttar Pradesh, India and their metabolic potential for mitigating toxic hexavalent chromium from wastewater. Metagenomes contain 0.2 million reads and 56.5% GC content. The metagenomic analysis provided insight into the relative abundance of soil microbial communities and revealed the domination of around 200 bacterial species belonging to different phyla and four archaeal phyla. The top 10 abundant genera in garden soil were Gemmata, Planctomyces, Steroidobacter, Pirellula, Pedomicrobium, Rhodoplanes, Nitrospira Mycobacterium, Pseudonocardia, and Acinetobacter. In this study, Gemmata was dominating bacterial genera. Euryarchaeota, Parvarchaeota, and Crenarchaeota archaeal species were present with low abundance in soil samples. X-ray photoelectric spectroscopy (XPS) analysis indicates the presence of carbon, nitrogen–oxygen, calcium, phosphorous, and silica in the soil. Soil-derived bacterial consortia showed high hexavalent chromium [Cr (VI)] removal efficiency (99.37%). The bacterial consortia isolated from garden soil had an important role in the hexavalent chromium bioremediation, and thus, this study could be beneficial for the design of a heavy-metal treatment system. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Novel Insights into Phytoremediation of Pollutants)
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13 pages, 3302 KiB  
Article
Transcriptome Analysis of Cyanide-Treated Rice Seedlings: Insights into Gene Functional Classifications
by Cheng-Zhi Li, Yu-Juan Lin and Xiao-Zhang Yu
Life 2022, 12(11), 1701; https://doi.org/10.3390/life12111701 - 26 Oct 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 977
Abstract
Cyanide (CN) pollution in agricultural systems can affect crop production. However, no data are available to describe the full picture of the responsive metabolic mechanisms of genes with known functions related to exogenous KCN exposure. In this study, we examined the [...] Read more.
Cyanide (CN) pollution in agricultural systems can affect crop production. However, no data are available to describe the full picture of the responsive metabolic mechanisms of genes with known functions related to exogenous KCN exposure. In this study, we examined the transcriptome in rice seedlings exposed to potassium cyanide (KCN) using an Agilent 4×44K rice microarray to clarify the relationship between the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and their function classifications. The number of DEGs (up-regulated genes/down-regulated genes) was 322/626 and 640/948 in the shoots and roots of CN-treated rice seedlings, respectively. Functional predication demonstrated that a total of 534 and 837 DEGs in shoots and roots were assigned to 22 COG categories. Four common categories listed on the top five COG classifications were detected in both rice tissues: signal transduction mechanisms, carbohydrate transport and metabolism, post-translational modification, protein turnover and chaperones, and transcription. A comparison of DEGs aligned to the same COG classification demonstrated that the majority of up-regulated/down-regulated DEGs in rice tissues were significantly different, suggesting that responsive and regulatory mechanisms are tissue specific in CN-treated rice seedlings. Additionally, fifteen DEGs were aligned to three different COG categories, implying their possible multiple functions in response to KCN stress. The results presented here provide insights into the novel responsive and regulatory mechanisms of KCN-responsive genes, and will serve as useful resources for further functional dissections of the physiological significance of specific genes activated in the exogenous KCN stress response in rice plants. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Novel Insights into Phytoremediation of Pollutants)
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