Fungal bioremediation of petroleum hydrocarbons in terrestrial environments: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Soto-Mancilla M, Fioroni F, Ebrecht L, Martin M, Mestre MC
Soil Health
Fungi already living in your garden soil — including the mycorrhizal networks wrapped around plant roots — are powerful, overlooked tools for detoxifying land polluted by gas spills, urban runoff, and industrial contamination near where your food grows.
Scientists reviewed hundreds of studies on cleaning up oil-polluted soil and found that fungi are surprisingly good at breaking down toxic petroleum chemicals — reducing them by more than half in experiments. Despite this, fungi are used in barely 20% of cleanup research, while bacteria get most of the attention. The fungi connected to plant roots (mycorrhizal fungi) were especially promising, though scientists say we still need a lot more research on them.
Key Findings
Fungal treatments reduced residual petroleum hydrocarbons by 50–60% compared to untreated controls, with filamentous fungi like Trametes and Peniophora showing the highest effectiveness.
Fungi appear in only 20% of bioremediation studies, far less than bacteria (63%) or plants (31%), revealing a significant research gap despite strong performance.
Mycorrhizal fungi — the same root-associated fungi critical to plant health — achieved 45–49% hydrocarbon reduction, while yeasts were notably less effective, especially against polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
chevron_right Technical Summary
A large-scale review of nearly 1,750 studies finds that fungi are dramatically underused in cleaning up oil-contaminated soils, despite cutting hydrocarbon levels by 50–60% in experiments — outperforming many bacterial approaches.
Abstract Preview
Petroleum hydrocarbon (PH) contamination in terrestrial environments is a serious global concern due to the toxicity and persistence of these compounds. Fungi are promising agents in bioremediation...
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Mycorrhizal networks are underground fungal systems that connect plant roots together, forming symbiotic relationships where fungi provide essential nutrients and water in exchange for sugars produced by photosynthesis. These networks fundamentally reshape how plants acquire resources and interact
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