Attenuation of chromium toxicity by bioremediation technology

Chromium is an important toxic environmental pollutant. Chromium pollution results largely from industrial activities, but other natural and anthropogenic sources also contribute to the problem. Plants that are exposed to environmental contamination by chromium are affected in diverse ways, including a tendency to suffer metabolic stress. The stress imposed by Cr exposure also extends to oxidative metabolic stress in plants that leads to the generation of active toxic oxygen free radicals. Such active free radicals degrade essential biomolecules and distort plant biological membranes. In this chapter, we describe sources of environmental chromium contamination, and provide information about the toxic impact of chromium on plant growth and metabolism. In addition, we address different phytoremediation processes that are being studied for use worldwide, in contaminated regions, to address and mitigate Cr pollution. There has been a long history of attempts to successfully mitigate the toxic effects of chromium-contaminated soil on plants and other organisms. One common approach, the shifting of polluted soil to landfills, is expensive and imposes environmental risks and health hazards of its own. Therefore, alternative eco-friendly bioremediation approaches are much in demand for cleaning chromium-polluted areas. To achieve its cleaning effects, bioremediation utilizes living organisms (bacteria, algae, fungi, and plants) that are capable of absorbing and processing chromium residues in ways which amend or eliminate it. Phytoremediation (bioremediation with plants) techniques are increasingly being used to reduce heavy metal contamination and to minimize the hazards of heavy metal toxicity. To achieve this, several processes, viz., rhizofiltration, phytoextraction, phytodetoxification, phytostabilization, and phytovolatilization, have been developed and are showing utility in practice, or promise. Sources of new native hyperaccumulator plants for use at contaminated sites are needed and constitute a key goal of ongoing phytoremediation research programs. Such new plants are needed to enhance the attractiveness of phytoremediation as an effective, affordable, and eco-friendly technique to achieve successful clean-up of metal-contaminated sites worldwide.