Technical methods of purification of large areas of low and medium pollution are powerful, but extremely difficult to apply on a wide scale. This is due to high costs and the need to have specialised equipment during remediation. Phytoremediation is a much less complicated method. This environment cleaning technology uses the above-average capacity of some plant species to accumulate (socalled hyper-accumulation) or metabolise toxic chemicals. Soil microorganisms living in the rhizosphere also play an invaluable role in the degradation of harm-ful organic compounds; they are often much more involved in the mineralisation of xenobiotics than plants. Since plants provide favourable conditions for soil microorganisms to live – specific cooperation between them is possible. This kind of relationship can be useful in very effective removal of many toxic organic compounds, such as pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and other petroleum compounds, from the soil. Although this process is relatively slow compared to other methods, its low invasiveness and economic considerations make it worthwhile. Currently, attempts at improvement of the natural process of phytoremediation using genetic engineering are undertaken more and more often. Among other things, genes encoding cytochromes from other organisms are implanted into the plant genome. This idea is constantly being developed and the results of research that is more and more widely conducted in this are promising.
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