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
PubMedFungi 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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