| Summary: | Trichloroethylene (TCE) is a proven carcinogenic chlorinated organic compound widely used as a solvent in industrial cleaning solutions; it is easily found in the soil, air, and water and is a hazardous environmental pollutant. Most studies have attempted to remove TCE from air and water using different anaerobic bacteria species. In addition, a few have used white-rot fungi, although there are hardly any in soil. The objective of the present work is to assess TCE removal efficiency using two species of the genus <i>Pleurotus</i> that have not been tested before: <i>Pleurotus ostreatus</i> and <i>Pleurotus eryngii</i>, growing on a sandy loam soil. These fungi presented different intra- and extracellular enzymatic systems (chytochrome P450 (CYP450), laccase, Mn peroxidase (MnP)) capable of aerobically degrading TCE to less harmful compounds. The potential toxicity of TCE to <i>P. ostreatus</i> and <i>P. eryngii</i> was firstly tested in a TCE-spiked liquid broth (70 mg L<sup>−1</sup> and 140 mg L<sup>−1</sup>) for 14 days. Then, both fungi were assessed for their ability to degrade the pollutant in sandy loam soil spiked with 140 mg kg<sup>−1</sup> of TCE. <i>P. ostreatus</i> and <i>P. eryngii</i> improved the natural dissipation of TCE from soil by 44%. Extracellular enzymes were poorly expressed, but mainly in the presence of the contaminant, in accordance with the hypothesis of the involvement of CYP450.
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