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Special Issue Editor

Dr. Mohammad Azizur Rahman

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Centre for Infrastructure Engineering, Western Sydney University, Penrith Campus, NSW, Australia
Interests: environmental toxicology biogeochemistry of heavy metals environmental pollution and remediation human and environmental health environmental chemistry water quality environmental sustainability

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Environmental pollution from natural and anthropogenic sources is a global challenge for environmental sustainability and human health. Some of the major environmental pollutants are heavy metals/metalloids, pesticides, polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls, detergents, antibiotics, and nanoparticles that may cause various environmental and human health problems. Mining, industrial effluents, and infrastructure development activities (e.g., roads and highway, urbanization) are the major sources of environmental pollutants, while natural release of heavy metals/metalloids in some areas of the world has also been contributing to environmental pollution. Long term cumulative effects of the pollutants in the environment are detrimental to human and environmental health. Complete remediation/removal of these contaminants is challenging due to the lack of reliable, sustainable, and cost-effective technology. However, diverse groups of microorganisms that are already present in the environment may provide a solution through
bio-degradation and bio-transformation processes. Microbes have various mechanisms for
bio-remediation of heavy metals, such as adsorption to cell surfaces, complexation of exopolysaccharides, intracellular accumulation, and biosynthesis of metallothioneins and other proteins that trap metals and transform them to less and/or non-toxic compounds. Recently, research is being focused on the development of genetically modified bio-remediation technology for the detoxification of environmental pollutants. This Special Issue aims to present original research articles, reviews, and short communications in the areas of (but not limited to) bio-degradation and bio-remediation of environmental pollutants.

Dr. Mohammad Azizur Rahman
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Environments is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Bio-degradation
Bio-remediation
Heavy metals/metalloids
Polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)
Nanoparticles
Detoxification
Bio-transformation
Genetically modified bio-remediation technology

Published Papers (1 paper)

Research

8693 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Establishment of an Aseptic Culture System and Analysis of the Effective Growth Conditions for Eleocharis acicularis Ramets for Use in Phytoremediation

by Yasushi Sato, Shinpei Goto, Shoya Teraoka, Katsuya Takagaki, Akinari Takehara, Sakae Sano and Masayuki Sakakibara

Environments 2017, 4(2), 40; https://doi.org/10.3390/environments4020040 - 03 Jun 2017

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 6115

Abstract

Eleocharis acicularis, an aquatic macrophyte of the Cyperaceae family, has been shown to accumulate multiple heavy metals and has great potential for use in the phytoremediation of contaminated soil and water. To investigate the mechanism of accumulation of heavy metals in E. acicularis while excluding biotic and abiotic environmental effects and to acquire homogenous and sufficient populations of E. acicularis, we established an aseptic culture system and analyzed the applicability of this species for phytoremediation. Young ramet bases and stolon tips of E. acicularis grown in the field were sterilized, cultured, and established in an aseptic culture system, and the effective growth conditions of isolated ramets were determined. Isolated ramets grew remarkably well in a medium of pH 4.8 to 5.7 with 0.25 mg/L kinetin as a plant hormone. Furthermore, capacity for the accumulation of heavy metals was examined using E. acicularis subcultured with or without Si. Aseptically cultured E. acicularis showed a sufficient capacity for Cs and Zn accumulation and exceeded the criteria for hyperaccumulator plants in accumulating Pb, Cd, and In regardless of the addition or not of Si during its subculture. The aseptic culture of E. acicularis enhances its capacity for the accumulation of heavy metals and its applicability for phytoremediation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bio-Degradation and Bio-Remediation of Environmental Pollutants)

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