Use of plant roots for phytoremediation and molecular farming

Alternative agriculture, which expands the uses of plants well beyond food and fiber, is beginning to change plant biology, Two plant-based biotechnol ogies were recently developed that take advantage of the ability of plant r oots to absorb or secrete various substances. They are (i) phytoextraction, the use of plants to remove pollutants from the environment and (ii) rhizo secretion, a subset of molecular farming, designed to produce and secrete v aluable natural products and recombinant proteins from roots. Here we discu ss recent advances in these technologies and assess their potential in soil remediation, drug discovery, and molecular farming.