Recent Research and Advances in Phytoremediation for Environmental Decontamination - Understanding Detoxification Mechanisms

Dear Colleagues,

The growth of the world population and the associated increased demand for food, water, energy, as well as various anthropogenic activities, including agricultural intensification practices or rapid industrialization, have led to severe environmental pollution. The most common pollutants include heavy metals and metalloids, radionuclides, organic compounds, oil spills, and agrochemicals. A rapidly developing way of dealing with contaminated sites regards various phytoremediation techniques. Contaminants can be removed from soil and water using different mechanisms, depending on the plant species and environmental condition. Plants possess a wide array of strategies at the organ and cellular level that synergistically participate in pollutant detoxification and adaptation to stress conditions. These mechanisms include cell wall attachment, alterations in the permeability of cell membrane and also active exclusion, biotransformation, outer as well as

intracellular chelation, and sequestration. Despite the large amount of rapidly accumulating information, there are still open questions and challenges in this growing field. For example, to date, there is still very little experimental evidence concerning the cellular uptake of metals, distribution between cells, and sequestration into storage sites and the proteins mediating them. Moreover, we must also remember that ecto- and arbuscular mycorrhizal plants have altered physiological and molecular characteristics in comparison with nonmycorrhizal plants. Thus, mycorrhizal plants often exhibit altered, increased, or reduced detoxification mechanisms. Information gained from such research, together with biotechnology, has the potential to significantly improve the phytoremediation capacity of plants.

Therefore, this Special Issue seeks articles (i.e. research papers, reviews, as well as short communications) that focus on the mechanisms of contaminant detoxification, including their biochemical, physiological, genomic, or proteomic aspects, where studies have been conducted under controlled or field conditions, as well as agronomic trials on model plants, crops, trees, grasses, native species, etc.

Prof. Dr. Aneta Piechalak
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• phytoremediation
  plant stress
  metal tolerance
  protein hyperaccumulators
  phytohormone signaling
  cell wall adsorption
  natural ligands
  vacuolar compartmentation
  Heat shock proteins
  plant-microbe interaction
  Heavy metals
  biotransformation
  conjugation degradation
  ….