Exploring Nature's Allies: Unlocking Pollution-Fighting Organisms

The increasing persistence of hazardous contaminants is badly affecting the globe. Advances in remediation approaches may help enhance bioremediation's quality, while conventional procedures have failed to remove hazardous compounds from the environment. Chemical and physical waste cleanup approaches have been used in current circumstances; however, these methods are costly and harmful to the environment. There is a need to address environmental pollution with green processes, and biotechnological research is searching for microorganisms that can replace chemical processes.

Genetically engineered microorganisms

Microbial techniques can be used to reduce pollutants. For example, extremophilic microorganisms can be used to face three classes of compounds with high impact on environmental pollution: heavy metals, organic compounds, and lignocellulosic biomasses. These microorganisms can be used for bioremediation, biosensing, and biorefinery.

Genome editing tools based on the CRISPR-Cas system can be used to engineer these microorganisms, allowing for the production of valuable compounds and the replacement of chemical processes with biological ones. This can lead to more eco-friendly and cost-effective means of pollution control.

Heterotrophic microbes such as Pseudomonas, Sphingomonas, and Mycobacterium are also known to be involved in oil degradation. Pseudomonas, in particular, is capable of degrading alkanes, monoaromatics, naphthalene, and phenanthrene under aerobic conditions. These microbes can play a crucial role in reducing environmental pollution caused by oil spills or other oil-related contaminants.

Thermophilic extremophiles

Extremophiles are microorganisms that can withstand extreme conditions, such as high temperatures, extreme pH levels, and high pressure. Thermophilic extremophiles are a type of extremophile that thrives in high-temperature environments, such as hot springs, hydrothermal vents, and geothermal areas. They have unique metabolic capabilities that make them well-suited for bioremediation, which is the use of biological processes to remediate polluted environments.

In addition to their role in bioremediation, thermophilic extremophiles also have applications in biomonitoring and biorefinery. Biomonitoring involves the use of extremophiles to detect and quantify pollutants in the environment, such as heavy metals and organic compounds. Biorefinery, on the other hand, refers to the use of extremophiles to produce valuable compounds through metabolic engineering. The genetic systems of thermophilic extremophiles can be engineered to produce specific compounds, such as enzymes, that have a wide range of industrial applications.

The use of thermophilic extremophiles in bioremediation and biorefinery offers several advantages over traditional chemical and physical waste cleanup approaches. Firstly, extremophiles are eco-friendly and cost-effective, as they do not require the use of harmful chemicals or expensive equipment. Secondly, extremophiles are highly efficient in degrading pollutants due to their unique metabolic capabilities. Lastly, the increasing knowledge in omic-era and the need to address environmental pollution with green processes drive biotechnological research, making extremophiles an attractive solution for pollution control.

Heterotrophic microbes

The growth of oil-degrading bacteria and the extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) produced by them are derived from oil degradation. The majority of carbon in the protein and uronic acids of the EPS may have been derived from oil degradation.

In addition to the production of biofuel, hydrolyzing extremozymes have a wide range of applications in various industrial fields. The newly available thermophilic genome editing tools based on the CRISPR-Cas system open the way for the complete achievement of these goals.

Bioremediation is an eco-friendly and cost-effective means of pollution control. Advances in newer remediation approaches may help enhance bioremediation's quality, while conventional procedures have failed to remove hazardous compounds from the environment.

Bioremediation

Heterotrophic microbes such as Pseudomonas, Sphingomonas, and Mycobacterium are known to be involved in oil degradation. Pseudomonas, in particular, is a well-studied bacterium capable of degrading alkanes, monoaromatics, naphthalene, and phenanthrene under aerobic conditions.

Thermophilic extremophiles are another group of microorganisms that are effective in bioremediation. They can degrade organic biomasses and transform them into resources that can be reused. They also have applications in the food, feed, beverage, textile, pulp, and paper industries. The newly available thermophilic genome editing tools based on the CRISPR-Cas system offer a promising approach to achieving these goals in various industrial fields.

Genetic engineering is also being used to create microorganisms that can enhance bioremediation. These genetically engineered microorganisms can be used as platforms for metabolic engineering and the production of valuable compounds.

Biostimulation and bioaugmentation

Biostimulation

Biostimulation involves the injection of nutrients and other supplementary components into the native microbial population to induce propagation at a hastened rate. This process is often used for in situ bioremediation of accidental spills and chronically contaminated sites worldwide.

Bioaugmentation

Bioaugmentation is the addition of pre-grown microbial cultures to enhance the degradation of unwanted compounds. The predominant bacteria associated with the bioaugmentation process belong to the Achromobacter, Acinetobacter, Aeromonas, Alcaligenes, Arthrobacter, Pseudomonas, Nocardia, and Bacillus genus.

Effectiveness

The effectiveness of biostimulation and bioaugmentation processes varies depending on the environmental conditions. Studies have shown that these processes can generate between 34% and 75% removal efficiency of TPHs, with one study achieving a 95% reduction in the pollutant load using slurry and natural surfactant materials to accelerate the microbial remediation.

Limitations

While biostimulation and bioaugmentation are effective strategies for bioremediation, they are not without their limitations. Factors such as strain selection, microbial ecology, type of contaminant, environmental constraints, and procedures of culture introduction may lead to their failure.

Frequently asked questions