Fungi as potential candidates for bioremediation

Abstract The accumulations of waste and hazardous material have often increased toxicity level in nature, causing several adverse effects including human health. At present, the incineration is widely used as common method for remediation; however, it has several limitations. One of the alternative approaches to incineration is bioremediation that exploits the potential microorganisms for abolishing the accumulated pollutants in nature. Fungi are among potential candidates producing various hydrolyzing enzymes that play a significant role in decomposing the waste materials and adapt to different environmental conditions which enables them to survive in diverse condition. Therefore, it is required to identify the fungal species targeting to certain pollutant for achieving an effective mycoremediation. This chapter describes the different fungal groups with their habitat and potential role in bioremediation of hazardous material occurring in environment. The several fungal strains in nature are producing numerous enzymes, viz. hydrolases, lyases, transferases, and oxidoreductases, and decomposing and detoxifying the different pollutants and materials. The application of fungi in bioremediation for different toxic waste materials with details of the bioremediation pathways and fungal stains has also been described for the development of potential technology for removal of pollutant and toxic materials from environment.