Phytoremediation of Toxic Elements

Dear Colleagues,

Post-industrial areas and waste disposal sites pose a serious threat to surrounding ecosystems and local communities. A recent and rapidly developing approach to dealing with metal-contaminated sites that has both environmental and social acceptance is phytoremediation, using plants to prevent the spread of pollution via erosion, runoff, and percolation. Over the last 20 years, a tremendous boost has been observed in all aspects of phytoremediation research. Milestones in this field include mechanisms and rates of metal uptake, metal stabilization or immobilization in the rhizosphere by root exudates and microorganisms, the application of natural or synthetic chelators, short- and long-distance metal transport, and various issues related to metal toxicity such as growth inhibition, chlorosis and decrease in photosynthetic efficiency, metal-induced oxidative and nitro-oxidative stress, tolerance, and detoxication mechanisms. Despite the large load of the rapidly growing information, there are still open questions and challenging issues in this developing field. These include the role of plant microbiome (bacteria, fungi) in metal stabilization and induced resistance in metal-treated plants; the concept of metaorganisms development for phytoremediation success; soil amendment in assisted phytoremediation (e.g., biochar, iron); the impact of water supply, salinity, and mineral nutritional status on metal uptake and toxicity; hormesis effect and cross tolerance; plant growth regulators-assisted phytoremediation; as well as co-cropping and co-planting—all in molecular and metabolic to field aspects.

Thus, in this Special Issue, we welcome the submission of articles (i.e., research articles, reviews, and short communications) that focus on aspects of phytoremediation including physiology, biochemistry, genes, proteins, hormones, regulatory and signaling compounds, primary and secondary metabolites, nutrition, and environment, comprising transcriptome, proteome and metabolome studies, plant microbiome, metals interactions with nutrients in controlled studies, as well as field- and agronomic-scale trials on model plants, crops, trees, grasses, native species, etc.

Dr. Kinga Drzewiecka
Dr. Aneta Piechalak
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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