Sustainable Remediation of Soil and Water Utilizing Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi: A Review

Abstract

Phytoremediation is recognized as an environmentally friendly technique. However, the low biomass production, high time consumption, and exposure to combined toxic stress from contaminated media weaken the potential of phytoremediation. As a class of plant-beneficial microorganisms, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) can promote plant nutrient uptake, improve plant habitats, and regulate abiotic stresses, and the utilization of AMF to enhance phytoremediation is considered to be an effective way to enhance the remediation efficiency. In this paper, we searched 520 papers published during the period 2000–2023 on the topic of AMF-assisted phytoremediation from the Web of Science core collection database. We analyzed the author co-authorship, country, and keyword co-occurrence clustering by VOSviewer. We summarized the advances in research and proposed prospective studies on AMF-assisted phytoremediation. The bibliometric analyses showed that heavy metal, soil, stress tolerance, and growth promotion were the research hotspots. AMF–plant symbiosis has been used in water and soil in different scenarios for the remediation of heavy metal pollution and organic pollution, among others. The potential mechanisms of pollutant removal in which AMF are directly involved through hyphal exudate binding and stabilization, accumulation in their structures, and nutrient exchange with the host plant are highlighted. In addition, the tolerance strategies of AMF through influencing the subcellular distribution of contaminants as well as chemical form shifts, activation of plant defenses, and induction of differential gene expression in plants are presented. We proposed that future research should screen anaerobic-tolerant AMF strains, examine bacterial interactions with AMF, and utilize AMF for combined pollutant removal to accelerate practical applications.