ABSTRACT
Extensive agricultural activities, continuous anthropogenic practices, and worldwide industrial revolution have created many environmental problems due to the discharge of toxic wastes into the environment. Thus, numerous physico-chemical and biological procedures have been applied for degradation and elimination of pollutants from contaminated areas, and among these, the best one so far is the biological process. The biological process is simpler, more cost effective, and more environmentally safe when compared to other physico-chemical methods and technologies. The phytoremediation method is one of the bioremediation technology that involve the engineered use of green plants to sequester/metabolize/detoxify or biotransform environmental contaminants, and it has been described as a successful, ecologically gentle, and less expensive technology for pollution abolition. Although some success has been reported using plants alone in phytoremediation, the use of plants in conjunction with plant-associated rhizospheric bacteria offers more potential for phytoremediation of environmental pollutants. To improve phytoremediation proficiency, various heavy metal–resistant rhizospheric bacteria have been introduced in association with plants. In the context of soil metal pollution, the synergistic interaction between plants and rhizospheric bacteria has been increasingly studied because the latter presents noteworthy potential to increase plant tolerance against environmental stresses and enhance plant growth and metal uptake. This chapter outlines the benefits of combining plant growth–promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) and phytoremediation, focusing on the advantages of their association for the alleviation of metal pollution in contaminated environments.
