Microbial Bioconversion of Pollutants

Rapid development of industry and agriculture has led to the continuous inflow of ever-increasing amounts of various synthetic compounds, many of which have carcinogenic, toxic and mutagenic properties. Some of these pollutants are rather persistent in the environment and yield slowly to microbial conversion. Accumulation of these pollutants in the biosphere may create ecological stress which is frequently the cause of regional or global contaminations. These pollutants may also be hazardous to human health. One of the major solutions is total destruction of persistent pollutants followed by release of their intermediates into the biospheric cycles. This requires that technologies be developed which would provide the total detoxication and mineralization of industrial wastes to prevent the unintentional release of toxic pollutants into the environment. A major role in the involves microbial methods of xenobiotic detoxication. In recent years, great attention has been paid in this country to the development of waste-free technologies, use of microorganisms for detoxication of various pollutants, and working out the microbial methods of cleanup for various plants.