Prospects of

Microorganisms in
Detoxifying Environmental
Pollutants

Md. Fahmid Hossain Bhuiyan

Department of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology
Shahjalal University of Science and Technology

Pollutants

A pollutant is a substance introduced into the environment that has undesired effects or
which adversely affects the usefulness of a resource. In short, pollutants are substances
which cause pollution. Pollutants may be gaseous, liquid or solid.

Harmful Effects of Pollutants

1. Environment Degradation
2. Diseases
3. Global Warming
4. Acid Rain
5. Ozone Layer Depletion
6. Infertile Land
7. Bio-magnification of toxic substances

Classification of Pollutants

Pollutants are classified into two groups according to their natural disposal1. Stock pollutants: Pollutants towards which the environment has little or no absorptive
capacity are called stock pollutants. Example: Plastics, heavy metals etc.
2. Fund Pollutants: Pollutants for which environment has some absorptive capacity are
called fund pollutants. Example: Carbon dioxide, food waste etc.

Most Harmful Pollutants

Stock pollutants

Reasons to be the most harmful1. Tendency of building up in concentration in the environment

2. Non bio-degradable
3. Toxic

Detoxification

Detoxification means the removal of toxic substances.

Detoxification which is done using microorganisms is known as microbial detoxification.

Substances Requiring Microbial

Detoxification

1. Recalcitrant compounds
2. Heavy metals
3. Azo dyes
4. Municipal waste

Principle of Microbial Detoxification

Microbes can be used for detoxification following two simple rules1. Energy source
2. Toxicity

Catechol and Protocatechuate

Catechol

Protocatechuate

Ortho Cleavage and Meta Cleavage

Ortho cleavage

Meta cleavage

Accumulation
Studies have shown that microbes accumulate toxic material in cells following different
methods1. Intracellular chelation
2. Compartmentalization
3. Bio-sorption
4. Efflux pump
5. Extra cellular complexation
6. Cell wall binding
etc.

Recalcitrant Compounds

There are different types of recalcitrant compounds1. Poly chlorinated biphenyls

2. Synthetic polymer
3. Alkyl benzene sulphonates
4. Oil mixture

Poly Chlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs)

PCBs are two covalently linked benzene
rings in which hydrogen atoms are
replaced by chlorine atoms.

The degradation of PCBs are

divided into 2 pathways1. Upper pathway
2. Lower pathway

Upper pathway: Conversion of

biphenyl to chlorobenzoate

Poly Chlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs)

Conversion of chlorobenzoate to hydroxybenzoic

acid
Most bacteria doesnt have the necessary enzymes to complete both of the pathways.
Enzymes required1. Biphenyl dioxygenase
2. 2,3-dihydrodiol dehydrogenase
3. Dihydroxybiphenyl dioxygenase
4. Hydrolase

Bacterial species1. Pseudomonas pseudoalcaligenes

2. Sphingomonas paucimobilis
3. Comamonas testosterone
4. Tannerella forsythia

Synthetic Polymers
Industriallyproducedchemicalsubstancesconsistingofanumberof
molecules
linkedtogetherwithcovalent bonds. Example: Polyethers, polyesters, polyethelene etc.
Polymers are first broken down to dimer, monomers using
depolymerases.
There are many types of polymers with different
compositions. Enzymes from different bacteria are being
used to degrade them. Some polymers are accumulated in
bacterial cells Some of these bacteria are1. Pseudomonus sp.
2. Alcaligenes sp.
3. Corynebacterium sp.

Alkyl Benzene Sulfonates

Alkyl benzene sulfonates are
mostly used as surfactants to
reduce surface tension.
Complete surfactant biodegradation was
achieved by three important
steps:
1. Terminal oxidation of the alkyl chain
2. Desulfonation
3. Aromatic-ring cleavage.
The breakdown of the alkyl chain starts with the
oxidation of the terminal methyl group(oxidation).
The carboxylic acid can then undergo -oxidation
and the two carbon fragment enters the
tricarboxylic acid cycle as acetyl-coA.

Alkyl Benzene Sulfonates

Three mechanisms have been proposed for

desulfonation.
1. Hydroxydative desulfonation
2. Monooxygenase catalysis under acid
conditions
3. Reductive desulfonation
Enzyme1. Monooxygenase
2. Dehydrogenase
3. Reductase

Key microbes1. Alcaligenes sp.

2. Comamonas testosterone

Oil Mixture
Oil mixture usually contains-

These compounds need

different types of
enzymes for degradation.

Some genes required for oil

degradation-

Oil Mixture
Development of Pseudomonus putida by Ananda Mohan Chakrabarty was a
significant event in the history of biotechnology. Several bacteria are
usually used to degrade oil due to oil spillage. Pseudomonus putida is able
to degrade oil alone due to combination of different genes in its plasmids.

Heavy Metal

Microbes show different mechanisms to defend against heavy metal toxicity.

These mechanisms include1. Exclusion
2. Compartmentalization
3. Metal binding proteins
4. Efflux pump
5. Cell wall binding

Heavy Metal
These mechanisms are classified into passive and active mechanism. Illustration of
different mechanism used by bacteria, algae, fungi.

Azo Dyes
Azo compoundsarecompoundsbearing the functional groupRN=NR, in
which R and R can be eitheraryloralkyl.
As a consequence of -delocalization, aryl azo compounds have vivid
colors, especially reds, oranges, and yellows. Therefore, they are used
asdyes, and are commonly known asazo dyes.
Azo compound degradation is done by three key enzymes1. Azo reductase
2. Peroxidase
3. Laccase
These enzymes are collected from bacterial species like Bacillus
subtilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosaandPsuedomonasputida.

General formula
of azo compounds

Municipal Waste
Municipal waste itself is not hard to degrade but it often contains recalcitrant substances,
heavy metals, industry effluents etc. So various waste treatment systems are used to
treat the waste using microbes mentioned earlier during the secondary treatment
process.
Some these systems are1. Activated sludge process
2. Trickling filter
3. Rotating biological contractor
4. Oxidation pond

Gaseous Pollutants

Bio-reactors are being used to treat polluted gas using microorganisms as biological
component. There are mainly 4 types of bioreactors which are currently being used to
remove pollutant from gas.
1. Bio-filter
2. Bio-trickling filter
3. Bio-scrubber
4. Membrane bio-reactor

Gaseous Pollutants
The diagram includes Schematic representation of
four different types of bioreactors used in
biological waste gas purification and close-up
view of their respective microbial configurations.
a)
b)
c)
d)

Bio-filter
Bio-trickling filter
Bio-scrubber
Membrane bio-reactor

Modification of Microbes
In most scenarios microbes are doing a better job degrading pollutants. But the main
problem is a single microbe cant degrade a specific type of pollutant itself due to the
necessity of different enzyme systems. Sometimes mixture of aerobic and anaerobic
bacteria are required to use together. So maintaining both aerobic and anaerobic
condition in a single system is difficult. So modifications have to be made using genetic
engineering to develop such a strain of microbe that can degrade a specific type of
pollutant all by itself.
Such processes include plasmid transfer by conjugation, transduction and transformation,
recombinant technology etc. By doing so microbial degradation can be made more
efficient, cheap and easy to use.

Conclusion

Microbial degradation of environmental pollutants is potential solution to the problems

coming in the near future. Environment pollutants are polluting nature and harming
ecology. Changes in ecology are affecting human lives directly. It affects agriculture,
cultivation land, excessive amount of pesticide in agricultural products, diseases etc. The
only viable solution to this is using microbes for pollutant degradation. It will not only
save environment from further harm but its also cost friendly, no chance of human harm
and efficient. So microbial degradation should be adapted in every waste management
system.

Thank
You