Metallotolerant Microbes for Improving the Health of Heavily Polluted Soil

Contamination by heavy metals (HMs) is a serious concern being faced today owing to its disastrous repercussions, contributing to environmental pollution. These pollutants not only adversely impact natural ecosystems but also significantly jeopardize public health by entering the food web. HMs do not break down easily, leading to their prolonged presence in the ecosystem. Metallotolerant microbes have developed mechanisms to survive by tolerating the negative consequences of inorganic metals, which has opened opportunities for bioremediation. Compared to conventional physicochemical approaches for converting HMs into non-toxic states, employing microorganisms in remediation proves to be a highly efficient and environmentally friendly approach for restoring metal-contaminated environments. To cope with HMs, metallotolerants have developed specific mechanisms such as biosorption, biotransformation, bioprecipitation, and so on. Given its significance, the current book chapter describes the impacts of HMs contamination in the environment followed by bioremediation strategies which advocate the growth of metallotolerant microorganisms in such metal-rich situations and enable bioremediation. Metal microbial interactions as well as the diversity of metallotolerant microbes are also depicted in the chapter.