Chapter 6

Fungal Strategies for the

Remediation of Polycyclic

Aromatic Hydrocarbons

Nitu Gupta,¹ Sandipan Banerjee,² Apurba Koley,³

Aman Basu,⁴ Nayanmoni Gogoi,¹ Raza Rafiqul Hoque,¹

Narayan Chandra Mandal ² and

Srinivasan Balachandran^3,*

6.1 Introduction

A progressive increase in industrialization over several decades has caused the release of various

potentially hazardous contaminants such as xenobiotic compounds and heavy metals, that severely

affect the environment, i.e., soil, air and water. In these conditions, nowadays, environmental

pollutants are becoming a global concern for our ecosphere. These contaminants exhibit versatile

harmful effects on the human body and ecosystem. The significant human health hazards associated

with Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) include carcinogenic, mutagenic, teratogenic and

immune suppressants. It can rapidly assimilate in the gastrointestinal tract of mammals because

of its lipid-dissolvable nature (Abdel-Shafy and Mansour 2016). Such toxic substances can be

bioaccumulated in the food chain due to their non-polar, hydrophobic and lipophilic nature (Masih

et al. 2012). Several findings reveal that PAHs induce tumors in humans. This carcinogenic

characteristic of PAHs is co-relatable with their molecular structure. Structurally, carcinogenic

PAHs have a bay or K locale, showing a high affinity towards mammalian DNA. As a result,

PAHs-linked DNA adducts transformed the typical cell into a tumorigenic cell (Weis et al. 1998).

Hence, more attention should be paid to the remediation and restoration approaches for cleaning

up the contaminated environment from these pollutants. In this context, PAHs are considered one

of the prime concerns for the ecological malaise. PAHs are characterized as hydrophobic organic

compounds that are chemically constituted by two or more benzenoid rings. They are omnipresent,

1 Department of Environmental Science, Tezpur University, Napaam, Tezpur, Assam, 784028, India.

2 Mycology and Plant Pathology Laboratory, Department of Botany, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan 731235, West Bengal,

India.

3 Department of Environmental Studies, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan-731235, West Bengal, India.

4 Department of Biology, York University, Canada.

* Corresponding author: s.balachandran@visva-bharati.ac.in