Bioremediation of Phenolic Pollutants by Fungi: A Perspective
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55981/limnotek.2025.8074Keywords:
mycoremediation, phenol, wastewater treatmentAbstract
Phenol is a priority pollutant that poses a significant risk to human health and ecological systems when released into aquatic environments. Consequently, numerous technologies have been developed and implemented to remove phenol from wastewater. These technologies can be classified into physical, chemical, and biological techniques. While conventional treatment methods can effectively remove phenol, some are more economical and less environmentally beneficial. This overview, which is based on a collation of relevant and comprehensive literatures, emphasizes various phenolic pollutants in wastewater and how mycoremediation can be implemented to address these issues. Mycoremediation research has been chiefly directed on investigating the effects of various conditions on phenol degradation and evaluating its effectiveness under controlled experiments. Moreover, mycoremediation enables a doable solution for mitigating pollution, improving water quality, and supporting biodiversity in aquatic ecosystems. These also mean that advancing mycoremediation encourages environmentally sustainable practice. However, the remaining gaps exist in current research including the toxicity assessment of degradation by-products, the application of synthetic biology methods for chassis modification, creation and development of innovative immobilization methods, improvement of remediation efficiency by integration of multiple technologies and scalability of mycoremediation for practical wastewater treatments. These areas warrant further research to advance the greater potential of mycoremediation.
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