This review summarizes recent knowledge of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) biotransformation by microorganisms and plants. Whereas most research has focused on PAH degradation either by plants or microorganisms separately, this review specifically addresses the interactions of plants with their rhizosphere microbial communities. Indeed, plant roots release exudates that contain various nutritional and signaling molecules that influence bacterial and fungal populations. The complex interactions of these populations play a pivotal role in the biodegradation of high-molecular-weight PAHs and other complex molecules. Emerging integrative approaches, such as (meta-) genomics, (meta-) transcriptomics, (meta-) metabolomics, and (meta-) proteomics studies are discussed, emphasizing how "omics" approaches bring new insight into decipher molecular mechanisms of PAH degradation both at the single species and community levels. Such knowledge address new pictures on how organic molecules are cometabolically degraded in a complex ecosystem and should help in setting up novel decontamination strategies based on the rhizosphere interactions between plants and their microbial associates.
BackgroundHigher plants have to cope with increasing concentrations of pollutants of both natural and anthropogenic origin. Given their capacity to concentrate and metabolize various compounds including pollutants, plants can be used to treat environmental problems - a process called phytoremediation. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the stabilization, the extraction, the accumulation and partial or complete degradation of pollutants by plants remain poorly understood.ResultsHere, we determined the molecular events involved in the early plant response to phenanthrene, used as a model of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. A transcriptomic and a metabolic analysis strongly suggest that energy availability is the crucial limiting factor leading to high and rapid transcriptional reprogramming that can ultimately lead to death. We show that the accumulation of phenanthrene in leaves inhibits electron transfer and photosynthesis within a few minutes, probably disrupting energy transformation.ConclusionThis kinetic analysis improved the resolution of the transcriptome in the initial plant response to phenanthrene, identifying genes that are involved in primary processes set up to sense and detoxify this pollutant but also in molecular mechanisms used by the plant to cope with such harmful stress. The identification of first events involved in plant response to phenanthrene is a key step in the selection of candidates for further functional characterization, with the prospect of engineering efficient ecological detoxification systems for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12864-016-3133-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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