Microbe-mediated bioremediation: Current research and future challenges

Abstract

The rise in environmental pollution over the past few decades due to rapid industrialization and unsafe agricultural practices has become a major challenge. The presence of toxic pollutants such as nuclear wastes, heavy metals, pesticides, and hydrocarbons has been languishing the environment as well as the human health. Bioremediation using microbial communities is emerging as an incredible, eco-friendly, and cost-effective approach to ameliorate the adverse effects of toxic pollutants. Microbes possess astonishing metabolic capabilities to alter most forms of organic material and can survive in extreme environmental conditions which make them attractive candidate for the bioremediation. Microbes are the treasure houses for environmental cleaning and recovering of contaminated soil and they have been reported from diverse environmental conditions including hot, cold, drought, and saline. Different groups of bioremediating microbes have reported from diverse conditions, that is, bacteria, fungi including yeast, and algae. Microbes belonging to genera Alcaligenes, Aspergillus, Bacillus, Flavobacterium, Ganoderma, Methosinus, Nocardia, Phormidium, Pseudomonas , Rhizopus , Rhodococcus, and Stereum have been reported as potential and efficient bioremediators for the degradation of different pollutants of the environment such as xenobiotics, heavy metals, hydrocarbons, and paper and pulp effluent. The present review focuses on microbial diversity in bioremediation, techniques applied in bioremediation, bioremediation of different environmental pollutants, and how bioremediation processes could be monitored.