Measurement of Ligninolytic Enzymes of Soil Treated with Bioaugmentation

Abstract

Fungal-secreted enzymes play important roles in bioremediation processes. Particularly, white rot fungi secrete oxidoreductases and hydrolases, which are involved in degradative functions and transform polymeric substances into partially degraded or oxidized xenobiotic molecules and natural products, which can be easily incorporated by cells or, ultimately, mineralized. Fungal bioaugmentation is an interesting mycoremediation strategy to treat contaminated soils. In this chapter, we describe the bioaugmentation procedure with a coculture of white rot fungi and propose a simple protocol to extract and determine the principal oxidative and hydrolytic enzymes, which are related to degradation and detoxification of pollutants.