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7 Use of Wetland Plants in Bioaccumulation of Heavy Metals 133

potential application. The economic viability of phytomining will improve as the
price of metals increases. The financial attractiveness of phytomining should
increase, particularly if it can be combined with other technologies such as
phytoremediation and biofuel production (Brooks et al. 1998; Sheorana et al. 2009).
Most appropriate strategy to take care of a specific site may be selected by
considering three crucial principles: the possibility of the pollutant to convert into a
less toxic form through biological transformation (biochemistry), the availability of
the pollutants to microbial population (bioavailability), and the prospect for
biological activity (bioactivity). The potential for the use of plants for the detoxifi-
cation or phytoremediation of polluted wetland areas is being increasingly exam-
ined. Cutting-edge approaches like incorporation of specific CYP genes for
detoxification of xenobiotics along with upregulation of chelating proteins like
phytochelatins, metallothionein, and thus next generation of GM plants along
with microbes might play an important role in the wide application of the green
technology.

Acknowledgment Authors wish to convey thanks and appreciation to Mrs. Swagata Chatterjee
for the illustration (both Figs. 7.1 and 7.2) in the chapter.

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