Environmental contamination with a variety of pollutants has prompted the development of effective bioremediation strategies. But how can these processes be best monitored and controlled? One avenue under investigation is the development of stress response systems as tools for effective and general process control. Although the microbial stress response has been the subject of intensive laborat...

Bioremediation is a process in which microorganisms metabolize contaminants either through oxidative or reductive processes. Under favorable conditions, microorganisms can oxidatively degrade organic contaminants completely into non-toxic by-products such as carbon dioxide and water or organic acids and methane. Highly electrophilic compounds such as halogenated aliphatics and explosives typica...

The ability of heavy metals bioaccumulation to cause toxicity in biological systems—human, animals, microorganisms and plants—is an important issue for environmental health and safety. Recent biotechnological approaches for bioremediation include biomineralization (mineral synthesis by living organisms or biomaterials), biosorption (dead microbial and renewable agricultural biomass), phytostabi...

Environmental contamination due to anthropogenic and natural sources is increasing day by day because of increase in population, industrialization and urbanization. The enigma for the public, scientists, academicians and politicians is how to tackle the contaminants that jeopardize the environment. Advances in science and technology, since industrial revolution has also increasingly enabled hum...

Many organic chemicals have known human and environmental health hazards. At sites where chemicals have historically been stored, mixed and transferred, spills have often occurred. A primary route for human exposure to hazardous chemicals is by drinking groundwater which has been contaminated due to spills onto soil (Wilson et al., 1986) Due to the potential human health risks associated with e...

Although microorganisms are degrading the contaminants in bioremediation processes, soil animals can also have important--while usually an indirect--role in these processes. Soil animals are useful indicators of soil contamination, both before and after the bioremediation. Many toxicity and bioavailability assessment methods utilizing soil animals have been developed for hazard and risk-assessm...