1P.G. Department of Botany, North Orissa University, Baripada-757003, Orissa, India
2P.G. Department of Bioinformatics, North Orissa University, Baripada-757003, Orissa, India
*Corresponding author: E Mail: kumanandbotnou@rediffmail.com
Online published on 7 April, 2014.
Environmental pollution due to contaminated soil, water and toxic chemicals is a global concern. Clean up approach of contaminated site is an international objective and prior research areas. Bioremediation refers to the use of living organisms to degrade environmental pollutants. Among several microorganisms, the use of fungi in bioremediation is noteworthy. Several fungi have been reported to degrade many toxic and xenobiotic compounds from the environment. Species of Phanerochaete chrysosporium is regarded as model organism because of its ability to degrade many pollutants. Besides several filamentous and white rot fungi have also bioremediation capabilities. Many fungal genera have been reported to degrade hydrocarbons, pesticides and heavy metals. Phylogenetic relationships of bioremediating fungi have been poorly studied. Evolutionary relationships of some bioremedial fungi indicate that Morchella conicai forms a primitive group and Phanerochaete chrysosporium forms an independent clade with Phlebia sp. The highly evolved fungi with bioremediation potentials include genera of Agrocybe which forms an independent clade and are potential biodegraders of hydrocarbons suggesting their evolutionary significance and conservative nature of 18S ribosomal RNA genes
Fungi, bioremediation, Phanerochaete chrysosporium, xenobiotic, phylogeny, 18S r RNA genes, primitive group, Agrocybe)
