Increased soil pollution with heavy metals due to various human
and natural activities has led to a growing need to address environmental
contamination. Some remediation technologies have
been developed to treat contaminated soil, but a biology-based technology,
phytoremediation, is emerging. Phytoremediation includes
phytovolatilization, phytostabilization, and phytoextraction using
hyperaccumulator species or a chelate-enhancement strategy. To
enhance phytoremediation as a viable strategy, microbiota from
the rhizosphere can play an important role, but the use of genetic
engineering can also increase the success of the technique. Here we
review the key information on phytoremediation, addressing both
potential and limitations, resulting from the research established
on this topic.