Due to the application for more than 100 years of copper to French vineyards to combat fungal diseases of vines copper levels have been reported in vineyard soils up to several hundred milligrams of copper/kg of soil. There are now concerns about the ecotoxicity effects of copper accumulation. One potential way to remediate copper accumulation is phytoextraction. Furthermore, there may be potential to enhance the phytoextraction process by augmenting the process using beneficial bacterial species. Our research has involved investigating the potential to use fluorescent pseudomonads, a key group of bacteria that produce siderophores (iron-scavenging compounds), to enhance phytoextraction of copper from vineyard soils. Previous work in our group has shown that the siderophores produced by these bacteria are also able to chelate copper. Six fluorescent pseudomonad strains, producing six different siderophores, were investigated. All six of the siderophores tested were shown to be able to chelate copper, and three of the siderophores (produced by strains NEWT4282, C7R12, and NEM419) were identified as having the highest affinity for copper. In vitro studies with fescue plants grown on agar showed that fescue is able to assimilate copper, either when the copper is provided as copper sulphate or as copper-siderophore chelates. Moreover, significantly more copper was assimilated by fescue in the presence of the NEWT4282 siderophore compared to the copper sulphate control. Finally, experiments are being performed investigating copper assimilation by fescue grown in copper-contaminated vineyard soil, both in laboratory microcosm trials and in a field trial. Early results from the microcosm experiments have shown that inoculation of fescue with either of the strains NEWT4282 or C7R12 leads to an increased concentration of copper in the fescue shoots compared to uninoculated controls, indicating that these strains are able to enhance the phytoextraction process. The field trial remains ongoing. Overall, we have shown: (i) the ability to chelate copper may be a general property of pseudomonas siderophores, (ii) fescue plants are able to assimilate copper from both agar medium and from copper-contaminated soil, and (iii) assimilation of copper from soil can be enhanced by inoculation with siderophore-producing fluorescent pseudomonad strains. Further experiments will be required to investigate whether there is differential assimilation of copper by pseudomonas-inoculated fescue compared to vines.