Preface

Summary

Bioremediation is an expanding area of environmental biotechnology and may simply be considered to be the application of biological processes to the treatment of pollution. The metabolic versatility of microorganisms underpins practically all bioremediation applications and most work to date has concentrated on organic pollutants, although the range of substances which can be transformed or detoxified by microorganisms includes solid and liquid wastes, natural materials and inorganic pollutants such as toxic metals and metalloids. However, the majority of applications developed to date involve bacteria and there is a distinct lack of appreciation of the potential roles, involvement and possibilities of fungi in environmental bioremediation despite clear and growing evidence of their metabolic and morphological versatility. The fundamental importance of fungi in the environment with regard to decomposition and transformation of both organic and inorganic substrates and resultant cycling of elements is of obvious relevance to the treatment of wastes, while the branching, filamentous mode of growth can allow efficient colonization and exploration of, for example, contaminated soil and other solid substrates. This, together with the growing importance of fungi as model systems in eukaryotic cell and molecular biology, physiology and biochemistry, provides the rationale for this work.

The prime objective of this book is to highlight the potential of filamentous fungi in bioremediation, and to discuss the physiology, chemistry and biochemistry of organic and inorganic pollutant transformations. The chapters are written by leading international authorities in their fields and represent the latest and most complete synthesis of this subject area.