The use of trees in phytoremediation

Trees can be successfully used in phytoremediation because of their ability to grow on nutrientpoor soil, deep root system, fast rate of growth, metal-resistance traits and economically viable secondary use. Thanks to these features, trees are able to stabilize, extract, degrade or volatilize soil contaminants. The paper offers a comprehensive review of the role of trees in the phyto-remediation of soils contaminated by heavy metals or organic pollutants. Transgenic approaches to enhance the aforementioned processes, together with the use of chelating agents to improve the bioavailability of pollutants for plants uptake, are also reviewed and discussed.