摘要：Nickel (Ni) and cadmium (Cd) are two important environmental contaminants and have detrimental effectson ecosystems and are a risk to human health as they can enter the food chain via agricultural products orcontaminated drinking water. Agricultural soils in many parts of the world are moderately contaminated by Niand Cd due to mining and smelting of metalliferous ores, industrial waste, mineral fertilizers, pesticides,vehicle exhausts and municipal sewage sludge. The remediation of heavy metals contaminated environmentsis a challenging task because these elements are not degradable and once entering the soil, they can persistfor a longer time. Traditional methods used for the removal of heavy metals from the environment are, ingeneral, expensive and potentially risky due to the possibility of the generation of hazardous by-products.Phytoremediation, a sustainable and inexpensive technology based on the removal of pollutants including Niand Cd from the environment by plants, is a burning issue in plant research. However, as phytoremediationis a slow process, improvement of efficiency and thus increased stabilization or removal of these heavymetals from soils is an important goal. Efficiency of removal can be improved by mediation through arbuscularmycorrhizal (AM) associations which are integral and functioning parts of plant roots, as enhancing plantgrowth on severely disturbed sites, including those contaminated with heavy metals in particular Ni and Cd.They are reported to be present on the roots of plants growing on heavy metal contaminated soils and play animportant role in metal tolerance and accumulation. AM fungi act as a filtration barrier against transfer ofheavy metals to plant shoots. The protection and enhanced capability of uptake of minerals result in greaterbiomass production, which is an important criteria for successful remediation. Isolation of the indigenousand presumably stress-adapted AM fungi can be a potential biotechnological tool for inoculation of plants inorder to guarantee the effectiveness of AM symbiosis in the restoration of contaminated soils. Ni and Cdtolerant AM fungi like Glomus mosseae, Glomus tenue and Gigaspora spp. could protect plants against theharmful effects of metals.
