Fungal-Assisted Bioremediation of Agricultural Organic Pollutants (Pesticides and Herbicides)

Extensive use of pesticides and herbicides in the agricultural fields for the safeguard of crops engenders huge concern regarding pollution of these agricultural fields as well as directly or indirectly linked to an aquatic environment. In order to find out the apt bioremediation techniques that could be potentially used against these highly noxious agricultural pollutants, utilization of fungi and their associated enzymes like laccases and others may be an imperative tool against these pesticides, insecticides, and herbicides. A fungal system, including fungal enzymes, has proved their efficacy in the degradation studies of malathion (1), acetamiprid (2), 2, 4-D (3), chlorimuron-ethyl, imidacloprid (4), flubendiamide (5), thiamethoxam (6), pyrimethanil (7), cypermethrin (8), nicosulfuron (9), chlorpyrifos (10), isoproturon (11), chlorothalonil (12), DDT (13), atrazine (14), and alachlor (15) like agricultural organic pollutants which have been meritoriously and succinctly conferred here. There are limited recent works on fungal system-mediated bioremediation of pesticides and herbicides compared to a bacterial system, that is why, authors have objectively decided to compile the recent promising researches on the topic to provide an effective and informative update on the significant applicability of the fungal system in the removal of such organic pollutants. Herein, authors have best tried to present a clear, subject-centric and compact picture of the operative contribution of fungal systems (fungi and associated enzymes) in the biodegradation of different pesticides/insecticides or herbicides.