White-rot fungi and their lignin modifying enzymes: an effective tool to fight recalcitrant organic pollutants
White-rot fungi and their lignin modifying enzymes: an effective tool to fight recalcitrant organic pollutants

Summary/Abstract: In nature species belonging to the white-rot fungi group are responsible degradation of wood components, mainly lignin but also partly cellulose, due to the specific ligninmodifying enzymes they synthesise. Nevertheless, these enzymes tend to act not only upon constituents of wood, but also other macromolecular compounds having within their structure the same bonds as the ones within a lignin and cellulose molecule. It has been reported that with the use of the mentioned enzymes it is possible to break down various recalcitrant organic pollutants, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, phenols, biphenyls or heavy metals. This bioremediation technique using fungi as a tool to remove such xenobiotics is called mycoremediation and shows more advantages when compared to bioremediation with the use of bacteria.

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