This document discusses the use of white rot fungi in mycoremediation to degrade various xenobiotics and pollutants. It provides examples of studies using white rot fungi to degrade compounds such as phenols, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, dyes, and industrial effluents. White rot fungi produce extracellular enzymes like peroxidases and ligninases that can oxidize pollutants. Many fungal species have shown abilities to degrade persistent and toxic waste into less toxic or non-toxic forms. The document reviews the current state of research on mycoremediation using white rot fungi and their enzyme systems.

1. Mycoremediation of Xenobiotics
Recent Advances – A Review
Sanjay M, Desai

2. Introduction
A xenobiotic is a class of chemical substances
which usually are not produced within an
organism naturally or expected to be present
within. It can also cover substances that are
present in much higher concentrations than
are usual.

3. The term xenobiotics, however, is very often
used as synonym of pollutants such as dioxins
and polychlorinated biphenyls, because
xenobiotics are considered as substances
which are not found in entire biological
system, i.e. synthetic substances, which did
not exist in nature or purely manmade.

4. Degradation of such compounds by physical
and/or chemical processes is costly and often
produces undesirable products which are
toxic. Biological methods, being eco-friendly
and cost cheap techniques, were proposed for
xenobiotic degradation purposes in order to
overcome these problems.

5. Compared to bacteria, most of the fungi are
robust organisms and generally more tolerant
to high concentrations of pollutants. It
explains why they have been extensively
investigated since the mid-1980s for their
bioremediation capacities.

6. A wide number of fungal species have shown
incredible abilities to degrade a growing list of
persistent and toxic industrial waste products
and chemical contaminants to less toxic form
or non-toxic form.

7. Fungi posses’ very peculiar mode of metabolizing
their substrate by using array of enzyme systems.
Extracellular nature of these enzymes proven
superiority over any other enzyme system in nature.
The potential of fungal enzymes can be harnessed
for remediation of the environment. In depth
knowledge and understanding about these enzymes
will surely revolutionize the waste treatment in near
future.

8. White Rot Fungi in Mycoremediation
A wide number of fungal species have shown
incredible abilities to degrade a toxic industrial
waste products and chemical contaminants to less
toxic form or non-toxic form. Mycelium reduces
toxins by different enzymatic actions to restore the
natural pollutant free environment. White rot fungi
have successfully been utilized in degradation of
environ-mental pollutant like polyaromatic
compounds, pesticides etc. Prakash (2017).

9. White Rot Fungi in Mycoremediation
Use of White rot fungi for degradation was
reported as early as in1991 Higson FK (1991),
White rot fungi were among the organisms
tried for degrading xenobiotics. This group of
fungi includes many saprophytic and few
parasitic fungi like honey fungi.

10. White-rot fungi used in treatment of
Phenols and related compounds
White-rot fungi Waste treated References
• Pleurotus sp. Olive mill wastewater Laconi et al., 2007
• Trametes versicolor Olive mill wastewater Justino et al., 2009; &
Pleurotus sajor Justino et al., 2010
• Panus tigrinus Olive mill wastewater D’Annibale et al., 2006
• Phanerochaete Cooking wastewaters Lu et al., 2009
chrysosporium
• Trametes villosa Wastewater Bollag et al., 2003
containing chlorophenols
• Poliporus pinsitus Oligomeric D’Acunzo et al., 2002
polyphenol compounds

11. White-rot fungi used in treatment of
Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons
White-rot fungi Waste treated References
Pleurotus ostreatus PAHs aged creosote
contaminated soil Eggen & Sveum, 1998;
Eggen & Majcherczy, 99
Bjerkandera adusta,
Irpex lacteus and
Lentinus tigrinus PAHs in forest and salt marsh soils Valentín et al., 2006
Bjerkandera adusta Hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH)
isomers present in a spiked soil Quintero et al., 2007
Phanerochaete Aromatic hydrocarbons in an aged
chrysosporium and contaminated soil containing high
Pleurotus pulmonarius concentrations of heavy metals Boyle et al., 1998
Phanerochaete
chrysosporium xenobiotics in soil Higson, 1991

12. White-rot fungi used in treatment of Dyes
White-rot fungi Dye(s) References
Phanerochaete chrysosporium Anthraquinone dyes Lucas et al., 2008
Phanerochaete chrysosporium Azo dye Shahvali et al., 2000
Phanerochaete chrysosporium Indigo carmine Podgornik et al., 2001a
Phanerochaete chrysosporium Direct Red-80 Sing et al., 2009
Phanerochaete chrysosporium,
Coriolus versicolor,
Pleurotus ostrea tus Reactive Blue 4 and
& Pleurotus sajorcaju Reactive Red 2 Nilsson et al., 2006

13. White-rot fungi used in treatment of Dyes
White-rot fungi Dye(s) References
Phanerochaete Faraco et al., 2009
chrysosporium & Direct Blu 71, Direct Red 80,
Phanerochaete Direct Yellow 106, Reactive Blue 222,
ostreatus Reactive Red 195, Reactive Yellow
145, Reactive Black 5, Acid Blue 62,
Acid Yellow 49, Acid Red 266
Coriolus versicolor A synthetic waste water with
Poly S119 dye Hai et al., 2006
Pleurotus ostreatus,
Coriolus versicolor Remazol Brillant Blue Royal and
& Funalia trogii Drimaren Blue Erkurt et al., 2007

14. White-rot fungi used in treatment of Dyes
White-rot fungi Dye(s) References
Coriolus versicolor Crescent Textile Industry (CRT),
Itmad Textile Industry
(ITT), Megna Textile
Industry (MGT) and Ayesha
Textile Industry (AST) effluents Asgher, 2009
Pleurotus ostreatus Acid Orange 7, Acid Orange 8
and Mordant Violet 5 Lu et al., 2008
Cladosporium
cladosporioides Acid blue 193, acid black 210,
crystal violet, reactive black B(S)
and reactive black BL/LPR Vijaykumar et al., 2006
Dichomitus squalens,
Daedalea flavida, Coracryl dyes (black, pink, violet, red)
Irpex flavus & Reactive dyes (yellow, orange and red)
Polyporus sanguineus Rathiodal dyes (scarlet) Chander and Arrora, 2007

15. White-rot Fungi used in
Decolorization of Industrial Effluents
White-rot fungi Industry References
Coriolus versicolor textile Hai et al., 2006
Pleurotus ostreatus,
Coriolus versicolor &
Funalia trogii textile Erkurt et al., 2007
Coriolus versicolor textile Asgher, 2009
Pleurotus ostreatus textile Lu et al., 2008
Phanerochaete
chrysosporium pulp and paper Shararri et al.,
2010
Phanerochaete
chrysosporium pulp and paper Jaspers and
Penninckx, 1996
*Fomitopsis sp. IMER2. pulp and paper Ma et al., 2008

16. White-rot fungi used in
decolorization of industrial effluents
White-rot fungi Industry References
Phanerochaete
chrysosporium, pulp
Pleurotus ostreatus & S22 and paper Wu et al., 2005
Pleurotus ostreatus food Pant and Adholeya, 2007
Pycnoporus coccineus food Chairattanamanokorn
et al., 2005
Trametes pubescens MB 89 food Strong, 2010
Pleurotus sp. food Laconi et al., 2007
Trametes versicolor food Justino et al., 2009;
and Pleurotus sajor Justino et al., 2010
Panus tigrinus food D’Annibale et al., 2006
Phanerochaete
chrysosporium coke Lu et al., 2009

17. Use of Mushrooms in Mycoremediation
- Degrading Xenobiotics
Mushrooms posses mycoremediation potential
Kulshreshtha et al. (2014). Mushroom uses different
methods to decontaminate polluted spots and
stimulate the environment. These methods include -
Biodegradation, Biosorption and Bioconversion.

18. Use of Mushrooms in Mycoremediation
- Degrading Xenobiotics
Mushrooms are known to produce extracellular
enzymes such as peroxidases, ligninase (lignin
peroxidase, manganese peroxidase and laccase),
cellulases, pectinases, xylanases and oxidases.
These enzymes are able to oxidize many of the
pollutants. Activities of these enzymes are typically
induced by their substrates.

19. REFERENCES
• Bhattacharya S, Angayarkanni J, Das A and Palaniswamy M (2012)
Mycoremediation of Benzo[a]Pyrene by Pleurotus ostreatus Isolated
from Wayanad District in Kerala, India International Journal of
Pharmacy and Biological Sciences 2(2) : 84-93
• Desai Sanjay M, (2018) Recent Advances in Myco-remediation of
Xenobiotics : Review
Int. J. of Life Sciences, Special Issue A9; January, 2018 pp1 – 5
• Ellouze M and Sayadi S (2016) White-Rot Fungi and their Enzymes as
a Biotechnological Tool for Xenobiotic Bioremediation: Environmental
Sciences » "Management of Hazardous Wastes", book edited by
Hosam El-Din M. Saleh and Rehab O. Abdel Rahman, ISBN 978-953-
51- 2617-1, Chapter 7. National Conference on “Emerging Trends in
Mycotechnology”- (NCETM-2018)

20. REFERENCES
• Higson FK (1991) Degradation of xenobiotics by white rot fungi. Rev
Environ Contam Toxicol.122:111-52.
• Khan F, Farooqi A and Zafar MI (2017) Xenobiotics in the Soil
Environment: Biodegradation of Xenobiotics in Soil by Fungi Part of
the Soil Biology book series SOILBIOL, 49 pp235-242.
• Kulshreshtha S, Mathur N, and Bhatnagar P (2014) Mushroom as a
product and their role in myco-remediation. AMB Express. 4: 29.
PMCID: PMC4052754 doi: 10.1186/s13568-014-0029-8.
• Paszczynski A and Crawford RL (1995) Potential for Bioremediation of
Xenobiotic Compounds by the White- Rot Fungus Phanerochaete
chrysosporium Researchgate July 1995

21. REFERENCES
• Prakash V (2017) Mycoremediation of Environmental Pollutants,
International Journal of ChemTech Research, 10 (3): 149-155.
• Rabinovich ML, Bolobova AV, and Vasil’chenko LG (2004) Fungal
Decomposition of Natural Aromatic Structures and Xenobiotics: A
Review Applied Biochemistry and Microbiology, 40 (1):1–17.
• Tiberius B and Cătălin T(2013) Optimization of nutritional conditions
for the mycoremediation of the synthetic dyes Romanian
Biotechnological Letters Vol. 18, No. 6, 2013
• Tišma M, Zelic B and Vasic-Racki D (2010) White-rot fungi in phenols,
dyes and other xenobiotics treatment – a brief review, Croat. J. Food
Sci. Technol. (2010) 2 (2) 34-47