A comprehensive review on the mechanistic insights of mycoremediation against environmental pollutants

The rising human population, urbanization, and industrialization drive the intensification of global environmental pollutants, i.e., plastic, heavy metals, waste, dyes, pesticides, etc., causing massive pollution and health complications. To address this critical problem, scientists are searching for simple, effective, and eco-friendly strategies. Mycoremediation, employing fungi or fungal substances to clean up surrounding wastes, can be one of the most remarkable strategies. This review explores numerous mycoremediation methodologies using fungi for mycosorption, mycoaccumulation, mycotransformation, and environmental pollutant sequestration. Likewise, the function of various fungi in biotransformation wastes like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), heavy metals, pharmaceuticals, industrial wastes, and agricultural pollutants is identified. Mycoremediation has been shown to remove these pollutants. Additionally, the potential of mycoremediation for eliminating emerging pollutants such as agricultural and textile pollutants, domestic waste, and herbicides from water and soil was explored. This review highlighted that such fungi Aspergillus niger , Pleurotus ostreatus , Trametes versicolor etc. have significant capability in mycoremediation for addressing these emerging contaminants. To maximize the effectiveness of mycoremediation procedures, further research is required on the roles, activities, and regulation of fungal enzymes.