Lead: Natural Occurrence, Toxicity to Organisms and Bioremediation by Lead-degrading Bacteria: A Comprehensive Review

Abstract

Heavy metals (HMs) are widespread and vital to life, but their accumulation in organisms can be hazardous. Lead (Pb) has lately attracted considerable attention due to its devastating impacts on the environment and human health, such as its ability to produce neurodevelopmental disorders in children even at low exposure levels. Cardiovascular, renal, digestive, hematological, and reproductive consequences exist. The current review sheds light on the familiar sources of the HMs, their ecological hazards, the most common types with particular reference to Pb, its natural and artificial sources, physical and chemical characteristics, environmental and human health hazards, and control strategies using different approaches as remediation through (physical, chemical and biological strategies), microorganism-assisted bacteria with particular reference to the advantages and limitation of each approach. Through this review, we introduce a solution to eliminating the problem of Pb toxicity & accumulation in the food chain through endophytes bacteria, as it has high efficiency in treating lead toxicity. The presentation will show the mechanism of these microbes in treating lead toxicity.