Biorremediation of chemical herbicides using fungal species or microbial consorptia in soil.

CARRANZA C.S.; MAGNOLI, C.E.; BARBERIS C.L.; MONGE M.P.,; ALUFFI M.E.; MAGNOLI K.

What is biodegradation and why is matters

Nova Science Publisher

Lugar: New York; Año: 2022; p. 137 - 165

Pesticides are widely used in food production worldwide. Theseformulations include herbicides, insecticides, fungicides and other typesof pesticides. Chemical herbicides represent 47.5% of the total pesticidesused worldwide. It is known that less than 10% of the applied doses ofthese herbicides attack the target organisms. Therefore, these compoundsmove on the environment by different mechanisms like rainwater, cropremoval, leaching, volatilization, plant uptake, chemical degradation,adsorption, photodegradation, runoff and microbial degradation. Someherbicides are persistent and recalcitrant being a problem because theirresidues could be harmful for both human and/or animal health and forthe environment. The excessive use and inappropriate application ofchemical herbicides can cause negative effects on biodiversity. Inaddition, these residues could have a phytotoxic effect on the next cropand could threat the food production chain. Several processes help thedissipation of these compounds on soil, but the microbial degradation is one of the most important. Both scientific and social community haveincreasing interests on minimize the impact of chemical herbicides on theenvironment. Therefore, a lot of investigation about bioremediationstrategies is performed. Although there is considerable research done onbiodegradation of herbicides by bacteria, fungi are less studied in thisfield. Fungi are great enzyme producers and they are able to metabolizeimportant environmental pollutants such as herbicides. They have someadvantages against bacteria in bioremediation systems. They can degradea diverse range of persistent toxic environmental pollutants and carry outa relevant role in co-metabolic degradation processes. The purpose of thischapter is to review information about studies performed in order todevelop bioremediation strategies using fungi or microbial consortia todiminish chemical herbicides residues in soil.