Mycoremediation: A Step towards Sustainability

Abstract

Mycoremediation is a new wave of cutting-edge technology in this era that incorporates fungi in nursing environment damaged by toxins. Instigating fungi to such contaminated places leads the way for the natural cleaning process. Waste treatment plants running on incinerators, exercising physical and chemical methods, are injurious to the health of organisms and the environment. They lead to life-threatening diseases and negative soil pollution. Eco-friendly and secure techniques are to be employed for their management. Microfungi, as well as macrofungi, help in this procedure. They degrade environmental wastes as heavy metals, aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated compounds, organic compounds by their extracellular enzymes without harming any natural component of soil. Demand and the need for reaching net-zero emission remain farsighted deed in the current scenario of rapid industrialization. Therefore, merging of the fungi with new techniques can speed up other processes of sustainable recovery of hazardous pollutants that may help in fighting against deleterious pollution levels. Their enzymes assert a great role and help in xenobiotic degradation rendering land and water clean and safe. Nevertheless, they do not have any special growth demand. White rot fungi and many mushrooms can grow on a wide range of substrates. The most common being sawdust, agricultural waste, and straw. Their biosorption efficiency helps to reclaim contaminated land. Ligninolytic enzymes uphold the mycoremediation process. In this review, we have encapsulated the mycoremediation of toxic substances by various genera and species of fungi along with the mechanisms involved. The aim is to precisely draw attention to the magnificently inherited traits of fungi that make them apt for the remediation process.