Phytovolatilization is transferring the heavy metals into volatile state or adsorbing the metals and
transferring into gaseous matter, using special matters secreted by root [42]. Mercury is the most studied
heavy metals. To explore the potential of plants to extract and detoxify mercury, Bizily et al [43]
engineered a model plant, Arabidopsis thaliana, to express a modified bacterial gene, merBpe, encoding
organomercurial lyase (MerB) under control of a plant promoter. MerB catalyzed the protonolysis of the
carbon-mercury bond, removing the organic ligand and releasing Hg(II), a less mobile mercury species.
Transgenic plants expressing merBpe grew vigorously on a wide range of concentrations of
monomethylmercuric chloride and phenylmercuric acetate. Plants lacking the merBpe gene were severely
inhibited or died at the same organomercurial concentrations. This work suggested that native
macrophytes (e.g. trees, shrubs, grasses) engineered to express merBpe may be used to degrade
methylmercury at polluted sites and sequester Hg(II) for later removal. However, this technology is only
suitable for volatile contaminants, and the application is limited [44].