Skip to main content
PMC home page
Environmental Health Perspectives logoLink to Environmental Health Perspectives
. 2001 Mar;109(Suppl 1):163–168. doi: 10.1289/ehp.01109s1163

Advances in phytoremediation.

A C Dietz 1, J L Schnoor 1
PMCID: PMC1240550  PMID: 11250813

Abstract

Phytoremediation is the use of plants to remedy contaminated soils, sediments, and/or groundwater. Sorption and uptake are governed by physicochemical properties of the compounds, and moderately hydrophobic chemicals (logarithm octanol--water coefficients = 1.0--3.5) are most likely to be bioavailable to rooted, vascular plants. Some hydrophilic compounds, such as methyl-tert-butylether and 1,4-dioxane, may also be taken up by plants via hydrogen bonding with transpiration water. Organic chemicals that pass through membranes and are translocated to stem and leaf tissues may be converted (e.g., oxidized by cytochrome P450s), conjugated by glutathione or amino acids, and compartmentalized in plant tissues as bound residue. The relationship between metabolism of organic xenobiotics and toxicity to plant tissues is not well understood. A series of chlorinated ethenes is more toxic to hybrid poplar trees (Populus deltoides x nigra, DN-34) than are the corresponding chlorinated ethanes. Toxicity correlates best with the number of chlorine atoms in each homologous series. Transgenic plants have been engineered to rapidly detoxify and transform such xenobiotic chemicals. These could be used in phytoremediation applications if issues of cost and public acceptability are overcome.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (307.2 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Bolwell G. P., Bozak K., Zimmerlin A. Plant cytochrome P450. Phytochemistry. 1994 Dec;37(6):1491–1506. doi: 10.1016/s0031-9422(00)89567-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Doty S. L., Shang T. Q., Wilson A. M., Tangen J., Westergreen A. D., Newman L. A., Strand S. E., Gordon M. P. Enhanced metabolism of halogenated hydrocarbons in transgenic plants containing mammalian cytochrome P450 2E1. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2000 Jun 6;97(12):6287–6291. doi: 10.1073/pnas.97.12.6287. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Dürk H., Poyer J. L., Klessen C., Frank H. Acetylene, a mammalian metabolite of 1,1,1-trichloroethane. Biochem J. 1992 Sep 1;286(Pt 2):353–356. doi: 10.1042/bj2860353. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. French C. E., Rosser S. J., Davies G. J., Nicklin S., Bruce N. C. Biodegradation of explosives by transgenic plants expressing pentaerythritol tetranitrate reductase. Nat Biotechnol. 1999 May;17(5):491–494. doi: 10.1038/8673. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Henschler D. 1990 Yant memorial award lecture. Science, occupational exposure limits, and regulations: a case study on organochlorine solvents. Am Ind Hyg Assoc J. 1990 Oct;51(10):523–530. doi: 10.1080/15298669091370031. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Hooker B. S., Skeen R. S. Transgenic phytoremediation blasts onto the scene. Nat Biotechnol. 1999 May;17(5):428–428. doi: 10.1038/8596. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Li S., Wackett L. P. Reductive dehalogenation by cytochrome P450CAM: substrate binding and catalysis. Biochemistry. 1993 Sep 14;32(36):9355–9361. doi: 10.1021/bi00087a014. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Marrs Kathleen A. THE FUNCTIONS AND REGULATION OF GLUTATHIONE S-TRANSFERASES IN PLANTS. Annu Rev Plant Physiol Plant Mol Biol. 1996 Jun;47(NaN):127–158. doi: 10.1146/annurev.arplant.47.1.127. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Miller R. E., Guengerich F. P. Oxidation of trichloroethylene by liver microsomal cytochrome P-450: evidence for chlorine migration in a transition state not involving trichloroethylene oxide. Biochemistry. 1982 Mar 2;21(5):1090–1097. doi: 10.1021/bi00534a041. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Raskin I. Plant genetic engineering may help with environmental cleanup. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1996 Apr 16;93(8):3164–3166. doi: 10.1073/pnas.93.8.3164. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Rugh C. L., Senecoff J. F., Meagher R. B., Merkle S. A. Development of transgenic yellow poplar for mercury phytoremediation. Nat Biotechnol. 1998 Oct;16(10):925–928. doi: 10.1038/nbt1098-925. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Rugh C. L., Wilde H. D., Stack N. M., Thompson D. M., Summers A. O., Meagher R. B. Mercuric ion reduction and resistance in transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana plants expressing a modified bacterial merA gene. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1996 Apr 16;93(8):3182–3187. doi: 10.1073/pnas.93.8.3182. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Salt D. E., Prince R. C., Pickering I. J., Raskin I. Mechanisms of Cadmium Mobility and Accumulation in Indian Mustard. Plant Physiol. 1995 Dec;109(4):1427–1433. doi: 10.1104/pp.109.4.1427. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Werck-Reichhart D., Hehn A., Didierjean L. Cytochromes P450 for engineering herbicide tolerance. Trends Plant Sci. 2000 Mar;5(3):116–123. doi: 10.1016/s1360-1385(00)01567-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Environmental Health Perspectives are provided here courtesy of National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

RESOURCES