Fungi as veritable tool in bioremediation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons-polluted wastewater

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons of diverse forms have found application in different industries and man heavily depends on these compounds for various purposes. Thus, tonnes of thousands of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are released into various water bodies yearly, resulting in pollution with great effects on aquatic lives, man, and the ecosystem at large. Hydrocarbon pollutions in wastewater are remediated by some physical and chemical methods with most of these techniques leaving a different form of harmful byproducts after the remediation. Furthermore, several species of fungi are important in the microbial bioremediation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon in wastewater as they are capable of using these compounds as their source of carbon and energy in the presence of oxygenase. Fungal bioremediation is cost-effective, safer, and ecologically friendly, in addition to fungi producing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon degradative enzymes in high amounts, both intracellularly and extracellularly. Although optimizing the growth requirement of fungi in the field is a major challenge, current advances in the application of fungi in bioremediation address this. This review discusses in detail the technology of fungal bioremediation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon in wastewater and its beneficial roles to man and the ecosystem. The benefits of remediating polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon-polluted water with fungi and their metabolites via nanotechnology, immobilization, genomic manipulation, and other technologies to generate value-added products are highlighted in this manuscript. Information in this review will provide useful important insights to researchers and industrial professionals in the bioremediation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon.