from Nazia Mojib, Jack T. Trevors and Asim K. Bej writing in Microbial Bioremediation of Non-metals: Current Research:
Bioremediation is an attractive, generally low cost, innovative technology that is a fundamental and sustainable approach to clean up non-metal or organic compounds from contaminated environments. These pollutants include hydrocarbons- principal components of petroleum and fossil fuels, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) - broad family of man-made organic chemicals also known as chlorinated hydrocarbons, polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)- industrial pollutants that are significant byproducts of coal, chemical, petroleum processing and refining and toxic pesticides used in agricultural lands. The principle of bioremediation lies in the diverse metabolism of microorganisms to degrade or transform organic compounds to assimilate energy with the help of enzymes encoded by diverse biodegradative genes. This can lead to the efficient removal of a wide range of pollutants and wastes from the environment. This chapter elucidates the structure, diversity and function of the biodegradative genes and enzymes involved in the biodegradation pathways of different contaminants. Also, the use of modern genetic methodologies and genome-based global techniques to better understand the function of these biodegradative genes are briefly discussed. Since, many degradation pathways, along with the enzymes and their respective genes are known and reactions are well understood, a bioinformatics approach in predicting enzymes and reactions involved in biodegradation of new compounds is also examined.
Further reading: Microbial Bioremediation of Non-metals: Current Research