Due to rapid industrialization and urbanization, soils contaminated with inorganic pollutants are considered a hostile and unreceptive environment for the growth and development of plants and their associated microbiota. Inorganic pollutants such as trace elements, including mineral acids, inorganic salts, metals, nitrates, fluorides and sulfates are serious threats to agrosystem sustainability and as such, remediation strategies have received great scientific attention in order to help conserve soil health for future generations. In highly contaminated areas, the application of pollutant resistant or tolerant microorganisms can help support plant growth and establishment, which in turn aids the soil revegetation process and limits translocation of inorganic xenobiotics to plant tissues. Besides possessing plant growth-promoting traits (i.e., biosolubilization of phosphate and potassium, phytohormone and biofilm production, plant defense mechanisms, etc.), beneficial soil microbiome can also act as efficient detoxifying agents for inorganic pollutants. Thus, understanding and manipulation of soil microbiota when applied at bench scale or under real field conditions could help alleviate inorganic pollutant-induced toxicity, and ultimately help enhance crop growth and yield in polluted agricultural soils.
This Research Topic will present the latest research and developments in the bioremediation of sites effected by inorganic pollutants, specifically focusing on bio-interactions between the root microbiome and plants. In order to counteract inorganic pollutant stresses, plants in association with resistant beneficial microorganisms have evolved multiple extracellular and intracellular physiological and molecular mechanisms to tolerate and regulate the uptake and mobility of pollutants.
The literature surveyed and presented by experts in this Research Topic will provide an insight into the biological, sustainable, eco-friendly, and novel approaches for the safe restoration and revegetation of soils contaminated with inorganic pollutants and may serve as the foundation for future bioremediation efforts.
We welcome the submission of manuscripts (Original Research, Reviews, and Opinions) related, but not limited to the following topics:
- Molecular characterization of genes of beneficial microorganisms involved in tolerance to inorganic pollutants;
- Study of the rhizosphere microbiome using the sequencing techniques under inorganic pollutants’ stresses;
- The importance of plant- and soil-associated microbiome/microbiota (rhizospheric/phyllospheric/endophytes microbiota) for inorganic pollutant detoxification and plant growth;
- Physiological and molecular mechanisms of plant tolerance to inorganic pollutants;
- Bioaccumulation of pollutants by plants including hyperaccumulating plants;
- The role of amendments and industrial wastes for improving bioremediation and phytoremediation of contaminated soils;
- Bioremediation field experiences using beneficial microbiota-plant interactions and level of constraints;
- How the research is being transferred and what problems could have for implementation (patents, regulatory issues, market development …)
Due to rapid industrialization and urbanization, soils contaminated with inorganic pollutants are considered a hostile and unreceptive environment for the growth and development of plants and their associated microbiota. Inorganic pollutants such as trace elements, including mineral acids, inorganic salts, metals, nitrates, fluorides and sulfates are serious threats to agrosystem sustainability and as such, remediation strategies have received great scientific attention in order to help conserve soil health for future generations. In highly contaminated areas, the application of pollutant resistant or tolerant microorganisms can help support plant growth and establishment, which in turn aids the soil revegetation process and limits translocation of inorganic xenobiotics to plant tissues. Besides possessing plant growth-promoting traits (i.e., biosolubilization of phosphate and potassium, phytohormone and biofilm production, plant defense mechanisms, etc.), beneficial soil microbiome can also act as efficient detoxifying agents for inorganic pollutants. Thus, understanding and manipulation of soil microbiota when applied at bench scale or under real field conditions could help alleviate inorganic pollutant-induced toxicity, and ultimately help enhance crop growth and yield in polluted agricultural soils.
This Research Topic will present the latest research and developments in the bioremediation of sites effected by inorganic pollutants, specifically focusing on bio-interactions between the root microbiome and plants. In order to counteract inorganic pollutant stresses, plants in association with resistant beneficial microorganisms have evolved multiple extracellular and intracellular physiological and molecular mechanisms to tolerate and regulate the uptake and mobility of pollutants.
The literature surveyed and presented by experts in this Research Topic will provide an insight into the biological, sustainable, eco-friendly, and novel approaches for the safe restoration and revegetation of soils contaminated with inorganic pollutants and may serve as the foundation for future bioremediation efforts.
We welcome the submission of manuscripts (Original Research, Reviews, and Opinions) related, but not limited to the following topics:
- Molecular characterization of genes of beneficial microorganisms involved in tolerance to inorganic pollutants;
- Study of the rhizosphere microbiome using the sequencing techniques under inorganic pollutants’ stresses;
- The importance of plant- and soil-associated microbiome/microbiota (rhizospheric/phyllospheric/endophytes microbiota) for inorganic pollutant detoxification and plant growth;
- Physiological and molecular mechanisms of plant tolerance to inorganic pollutants;
- Bioaccumulation of pollutants by plants including hyperaccumulating plants;
- The role of amendments and industrial wastes for improving bioremediation and phytoremediation of contaminated soils;
- Bioremediation field experiences using beneficial microbiota-plant interactions and level of constraints;
- How the research is being transferred and what problems could have for implementation (patents, regulatory issues, market development …)
