Understanding microbes to enable their participation in
bioremediation.
From billions of year’s microbes are being performing crucial role in
balancing biological and geographical cycles as recycling agents.
Metabolic potentials of microbes are also utilizing to clean-up
environmental contaminations. Clean-up processes are carried out in
non-sterile open environments that contain a variety of organisms.
In a phenomenon of bioremediation microbes capable of degrading
pollutants, usually have central roles. Microbes are capable of adopting
their pre-existing proficiencies to degrade many of xenobiotic compounds
and convert them into less toxic forms. Increasing abundance of heavy
metals in the microbial habitat; and their interaction with metals have
evolved several mechanisms like adsorption, complexation, chemical
reduction of metal ions to convert them into less toxic forms or to use
them as terminal electron acceptors in anaerobic respiration and this
efficiency of microbes make researchers curious to study their tolerance
mechanisms in-depth (Kapri et
al.,2011). The microbes degrading them are usually in small
populations under limited environmental conditions. This has led to
possibility of a single microbe or microbial consortia either to
clean-up polluted environment or to degrade harmful xenobiotic compounds
at their site before they are released into the environment
(Evans and Furlong, 2003).
Bioremediation basically relies on understanding physiological
parameters of microbes. Recorded importance should be given to know
nutritional and other supplementary elements, which enables them to
participate at their best in the phenomenon of bioremediation. Study of
chemical and physiological nature of sampling site contributes highly in
optimizing microbes to ensure their perfect selection. Lack of
nutrients, water and appropriate electron acceptors in the contaminated
or treatment sites is needed to support the growth of microorganisms
capable of remediation. To develop ideal decontamination strategies, the
above conditions should be necessarily understood thoroughly. Prominent
participation of microbes in bioremediation stands on its growing
ability at wide range of physiological conditions like extreme dry,
toxic and acidic environments
(Schlosser et al., 2011).
Bioavailability is that the fraction of chemical accessible to an
organism for absorption (Doick
et al ., 2004; Fig 2). It is also necessary to understand how
microbes destroy contaminants to employ them under in situ and
ex situ bioremediation. The introduction of molecular and
proteomic approaches in the last few decades to study ecological,
biochemical and cellular functions of microbes, has facilitated
environmental biotechnologists to gain information for the development
of better strategies to improve bioremediation and for further
evaluating their consequences. To achieve bioremediation successfully,
environmental chemicals are needed to be employed with appropriate
microbial catalysts (Evans and
Furlong, 2003).