Bioremediation of Environments Contaminated with Organic Xenobiotics: Putting Microbial Metabolism to Work

Microorganisms can metabolize many aliphatic and aromatic contaminants, either to obtain carbon and/or energy for growth, or as co-substrates, thus converting them into carbon dioxide, water, chloride and biomass. To be able to exploit these biotransformations for the remediation of contaminated environments, a number of prerequisites have to be fulfilled. The chemical has first to reach the microbial cell, then it must be transported into the cell. Toxicity should be absent or limited at the in situ concentration the cell is exposed to. This chapter reviews a number of metabolic reactions that convert the contaminant into common intermediary metabolites.