White-rot fungus (Phanerochaete chrysosporium) and soil bacterium (Pseudomonas putida) work as a metabolic relay to break down crude oil and PAHs, with fungal peroxidases opening aromatic rings and bacterial dioxygenases finishing the fragments. In contaminated soils and sludges, combined systems cut total petroleum hydrocarbons from ~5.8% to ~0.98% in 35 days and achieved 52–91% removal of PAHs, outperforming single microbes. The pairing enables sequential oxidation, ring cleavage, and mineralization, turning persistent oil pollutants into CO₂ and biomass.