Main description:

Bioremediation refers to the clean-up of pollution in soil, groundwater, surface water, and air using typically microbiological processes. It uses naturally occurring bacteria and fungi or plants to degrade, transform or detoxify hazardous substances to human health or the environment.

For bioremediation to be effective, microorganisms must enzymatically attack the pollutants and convert them to harmless products. As bioremediation can be effective only where environmental conditions permit microbial growth and action, its application often involves the management of ecological factors to allow microbial growth and degradation to continue at a faster rate. Like other technologies, bioremediation has its limitations. Some contaminants, such as chlorinated organic or high aromatic hydrocarbons, are resistant to microbial attack. They are degraded either gradually or not at all, hence, it is not easy to envisage the rates of clean-up for bioremediation implementation.

Bioremediation represents a field of great expansion due to the important development of new technologies. Among them, several decades on metagenomics expansion has led to the detection of autochthonous microbiota that plays a key role during transformation. Transcriptomic guides us to know the expression of key genes and proteomics allow the characterization of proteins that conduct specific reactions.

In this book we show specific technologies applied in bioremediation of main interest for research in the field, with special attention on fungi, which have been poorly studied microorganisms. Finally, new approaches in the field, such as CRISPR-CAS9, are also discussed. Lastly, it introduces management strategies, such as bioremediation application for managing affected environment and bioremediation approaches. Examples of successful bioremediation applications are illustrated in radionuclide entrapment and retardation, soil stabilization and remediation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, phenols, plastics or fluorinated compounds. Other emerging bioremediation methods include electro bioremediation, microbe-availed phytoremediation, genetic recombinant technologies in enhancing plants in accumulation of inorganic metals, and metalloids as well as degradation of organic pollutants, protein-metabolic engineering to increase bioremediation efficiency, including nanotechnology applications are also discussed.

Contents:

Preface

1. Omics approaches and its impact on bioremediation techniques

Ramon Batista, Yordanis Perez-LLano

Centro de Investigacio n en Biotecnologi a, Universidad Auto noma del Estado de Morelos, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Me xico

2. New omics for bioremediation to close the gap between structure and application

Cinta Gomez-Silvan, Eric Dubinsky, and Jana Voriskova

Environmental Genomics & Systems Biology, University of California, Berkeley, United States

3. Fungal transcriptomic analysis in reference to bioremediation

Elva Teresa Arechiga-Carvajal, Univeristy of Nueva Leon, Mexico

4. Potential for CRISPR genetic engineering to increase degradation capacities in model fungi

Haley P. Stein and Elisabet Aranda

Institute of Water Research, University of Granada, Spain

5. Phytoremediation and fungi

Jorge Luis Folch-Mallol, Veronica Lira-Ruan, Maria del Rayo Sanchez Carbente, Ramon Alberto Batista Garcia Centro de Investigacion en Dinamica Celular, Universidad Autonoma del Estado de Morelos. Ave. Universidad 1001. Col. Chamilpa CP 62209. Cuernavaca, Morelos. Mexico

6. Soil borne fungi in bioremediation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons compounds

Hemen Deka, Department of Botany, Gauhati University, Guwahati-781014, Assam, India

7. Dynamics of archaeal, bacterial, and fungal communities during the bioremediation of petroleum hydrocarbon-contaminated soils

Jose A. Siles, Institute of Microbiology, University of Innsbruck, Austria

8. Role of microbes in waste water treatment

Jesus Gonzalez-Lopez, Institute of Water research, UGR, Spain

9. Strategies for biodegradation of fluorinated compounds

Paula M.L. Castro, Irina S. Moreira, and Catarina L. Amorim, CBQF - Centro de Biotecnologia e Quimica Fina - Laboratorio Associado, Escola Superior de Biotecnologia, Universidade Catolica Portuguesa/Porto, Rua Arquiteto Lobao Vital 172, 4202-374 Porto, Portugal

10. Marine-derived fungi as promising candidates for enhanced bioremediation

Anjana K. Vala, Haresh Panseriya, Bharti P. Dave, Department of Life Sciences, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University, Bhavnagar-364 001

11. Stepwise strategies for the bioremediation of contaminated soils

Dra. Veronica Irazusta, Investigadora Adjunta, INIQUI-CONICET-UNSa, JTP Microbiologia, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales-UNSa, Universidad Nacional de Salta, Av. Bolivia 5150, (CP4400) SALTA

12. Fungal allies as mediators in polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon degradation

Jintu Rabha, Deepanwita Deka and Dhruva Kr. Jha, Microbial Ecology Laboratory, Department of Botany, Gauhati University, Guwahati 781014, India

13. Use of fungi in bioremediation and exploitation of olive mill wastes

Georgios I. Zervakis, Agricultural University of Athens, Laboratory of General and Agricultural Microbiology, Iera Odos 75, 11855 Athens, Greece

14. Fungal nanoparticles formed in saline environments are conducive to soil health and remediation

Yi Wei, Li-Na Chen, Zi-Yu Zhang, Chi Zhu, Shi-Hong Zhang, College of Plant Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun 130062, China

15. Fungal nanoparticles in therapeutics

Ahmed Abdul Haleem Khan, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Botany, Telangana University, Dichpally, Nizamabad-503322, Telangana State, India

16. Fungal bioremediation, microbiology, and nanotechnology

Vivek Kumar, Swami Rama Himalayan University, Dehradun, UK, India

17. Rhizospheric microorganisms as elicitors for tolerance against biotic and abiotic stresses

Laura Bardi, Council for Agricultural Research and Economics- Research Centre for Engineering and Agro-Food Processing, Area di Ricerca di Torino, Strada delle Cacce, 73, 10135 Torino (Italy)

Index