Revista de biorremediación y biodegradación

Abstracto

Role of Rhizobacteria in Reduction of Arsenic Uptake by Plants: A Review

Suresh Jaiswal

Heavy metal pollution of soil is a significant environmental problem and has its negative impact on human health and agriculture. Arsenic (As) distribution and toxicology in the environment is the serious issue worldwide. Rice is the major staple food for people in West Bengal and Bangladesh, is the biggest sufferers of arsenic contamination, and so protecting crops is of major importance and serious issues at these places. Bioremediation is the application of living organisms or products, or the application of biological principles, to ameliorate adverse environmental condition. Rhizosphere, as an important interface of soil and plant, plays a significant role in phytoremediation of contaminated soil by heavy metals, in which, microbial populations are known to affect heavy metal mobility and availability to the plant through release of chelating agents, acidification, phosphate solubilization and redox changes, and therefore, have potential to enhance phytoremediation processes. Phytoremediation strategies with appropriate heavy metal-adapted Rhizobacteria have received more and more attention. Microbes may influence our needs directly or indirectly. Directly by their detoxification potentials and may be the source of bioremediation and genetic engineering. Their exploitation in arsenic remediation would be simplest phenomenon to protect crops from arsenic, as it blocks the entry of heavy metals. This article deals with the identification, characterization and bioremediation advances in effect and significance of As-resistant Rhizobacteria in phytoremediation of heavy metal contaminated soils to prevent the transport arsenic metal from root to shoot to prevent the uptake by plants. There is also a need to improve our understanding of the mechanisms involved in the transfer and mobilization of heavy metals by Rhizobacteria and to conduct research on the selection of microbial isolates from rhizosphere of plants growing on heavy metal contaminated soils for specific restoration programmes.