Role of Mushrooms in the Bioremediation of Soil

One of the influential environmental quandaries facing the world today is the pollution of soil due to industrialization and extensive utilization of pesticides in agriculture. With the ascending population of the world and daily life demands supplied through industries and modern industrialized agricultural systems, the desideratum for the preservation of soil is frequently reported. A congruous, cost-efficacious, and ecologically responsible method of clean up of the contaminated soil is “myco-remediation,” which appropriates fungi to degrade toxic pollutants in an efficient practical approach. Although, bioremediation by bacteria has received the attention of researchers, the role of mushroom has been less studied. The faculty of fungi to transform the polluted soil by hazardous chemicals has aroused the interest of researchers to utilize them for bioremediation. Mushrooms are among nature’s most puissant decomposers, secreting vigorous extracellular enzymes, such as manganese peroxidase (MnP), laccase, and lignin peroxidases (LiP). Sawdust, straw, corn cob, etc., are sources of carbon to enhance degradation by living organisms at contaminated sites. White rot fungi have the efficacy in the transformation of pesticides, degradation of petroleum hydrocarbons, and wastes containing lignocellulose in the pulp and paper industry. The mushrooms, including Agaricus bisporus, Pleurotus ostreatus, P. tuberregium, P. ostreatus, P. pulmonarius Phanerochaete chrysosporium, Trametes versicolor, etc., have been used in bioremediation of polluted soils. Industrial effluent containing cumbersomely hefty metals are the main source of contamination in the environment. Several physicochemical techniques are acclimated to detoxify metal-polluted sites, but biosorption is a cost-efficacious method for the abstraction of toxic metals from the environment. The utilization of fungal biomass as biosorbent for toxic metal remediation has gained much consequentiality and interest as having rapid biosorption as well as desorption efficiency and cost competitiveness. One of the most economical and stable approaches to cope with this vital task is the utilization of the techniques developed through progress in interdisciplinary science, bioremediation. The spent mushroom compost (SMC) is a sustainable, inexpensive, and abundant by-product of the mushroom industry, for analyzing its faculty to fortify the remediation of contaminated soil by a diesel fuel spill. This chapter highlights the studies on the utilization of mushrooms for soil bioremediation.