Role of Microorganisms in Biodegradation of Pollutants

What is it about?

Environmental pollution through industrial development has led to the generation of a variety of lethal materials, especially recalcitrant classes such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, toxic dyes, pesticides, and heavy metals, which are now of critical environmental importance due to their harmful and mutagenic effects on humans, plants, and aquatic organisms. Biodegradation is naturally performed by microorganisms, implying the decomposition of complex organic compounds into a more straightforward inorganic form. These organisms will harness these organisms as a source of energy, while bioremediation is a human engineering technology that reduces pollutants using microorganisms through techniques of natural attenuation, biostimulation, or bioaugmentation to strengthen the ability of microorganisms. Various microorganisms can degrade environmental pollutants with promising skills like bacteria, fungi, algae, and protozoa. Certain parameters must be established to provide the highest biodegradation rate of degradable microorganisms under the optimum conditions. These factors are biological factors such as bioavailability, nutrient availability, culture type and type of microorganism, and environmental factors such as pH, temperature, oxygen availability, and pollutant concentration. Biodegradation mechanisms depend mainly on microbial enzymes such as oxidoreductases, hydrolases, peroxidase, oxygenase, proteases, lipases, and lacquers. Genetically modified microorganisms have been applied to further improve the remediation of pollutants and ensure safe biodegradation using symbiotic microorganisms.

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Why is it important?

Pollutants are important hazards and role of microorganisms is important