Detoxification of Soil Phenolic Pollutants by Plant Secretory Enzyme

The enormous growth of industrialization and agriculture has resulted in serious environmental pollution, and polychlorophenols are among the most hazardous pollutants. Because of the large investment required for traditional physical and chemical detoxification methods, engineering transgenic plants for phytoremediaton of polluted soil has received more and more attention. In most cases, however, the plants are employed to take up the pollutants and the toxic compounds are often not destroyed but merely accumulated or displaced. Recently, we developed a novel system of phytoremediation ex planta based on the overexpression of a secretory laccase that catalyzes the oxidation of various aromatic compounds, including 2,4,6-trichlorophenol. Because there are rich sources of various detoxifying enzymes, the technique of using plant exudation machinery for phytoremediation should be applicable to other types of pollutants in soil.