Bioremediation of phenolic compounds by higher fungi - A review.

The white-rot fungi produce an unusual enzyme system, characterized by a specialized group of peroxidases, that catalyzes the degradation of the complex plant polymer lignin. This ligninolytic system shows a high degree of nonspecificity and oxidizes a very large variety of compounds in addition to lignin. Among these compounds are numerous environmental pollutants. Thus, the white-rot fungi show considerable promise as bioremediation agents for use in the restoration of environments contaminated by xenobiotic molecules. The ligninolytic enzymes of white-rot fungi have a broad substrate specificity and have been implicated in the transformation and mineralization of organopollutants with structural similarities to lignin.