New advances in plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria for bioremediation

Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) are bacteria capable of promoting plant growth by colonizing the plant root. For a long period PGPR were mainly used for assisting plants to uptake nutrients from the environment or preventing plant diseases. Phytoremediation is a new and promising approach to remove contaminants in the environment. But using plants alone for remediation confronts many limitations. Recently, the application of PGPR has been extended to remediate contaminated soils in association with plants. Of all the present contaminants, the profound impacts of organic and heavy metal pollutants have attracted world wide attention. Here we review the progress of PGPR for remediation of soils contaminated with these two sources.