Safeguarding Marine Life: The Potential of Marine Microbes for Heavy Metal Remediation
摘要
In the last few decades, the increase in the population has also increased the pollutant levels in the environment due to the high number of industries and urbanities maintaining poor disposal of waste extracts which contain various numbers of contaminant factors, which are harmful to human health and environmental commodities. Eradicating of such contaminants by the conventional methods deals with cost effective and less efficient. The rise of remediation techniques through the living organism such as microbes and algae has huge scope in the removal of such pollutants which is also known as bioremediation. This method is most eco-friendly, rapid, and specificity has the impactful sector in the recent days. The bioremediation processes were classified further based on their mechanism, like biomining, bioaccumulation, biosorption, and in situ bioremediation. The heavy metals involved are (Cd)-Cadmium, (Co)-Cobalt, (Cu)-Copper, (Ni)-Nickel, (V)-Vanadium, (Hg)-Mercury, (Pb)-lead, (Mn)-Manganese, (Zn)-Zinc, and (Fe)-Iron, which are used to cause high toxic level to cause the harmful effects in the health of the humans, treating the heavy metals by microorganisms plays an immense responsibility in remediation process, the heavy metals bind to the microbial cells by both ways like, in the extra polymeric surface and the cell wall of the organisms. In EPS of the cell wall it consists of mixtures of biomolecules and some functional groups known as amine groups, hydroxyl groups, carboxyl groups, and phosphoric groups for the facilitation of biosorption of metal contaminants. By this method, the bacteria can gather the heavy metal (i.e., accumulation) in the toxic form and switch it into the non-toxic forms by the production of various enzymes present in the cell. This chapter deals with the removal of toxification in metal ions by the marine organisms that tolerate the toxic level and reduce them to less toxic. The developments of this marine organism are the best alternative source for treating those contaminants than the conventional methods. Species like Enterobacter cloacae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Marinomonas communis, Rhodobium marinum, and Rhodobacter sphaeroides are mostly used in the remediation of specific heavy metal contaminants. For the enhancement of better remediation of further, exploration of marine organism are the emerging fields of approach in the bioremediation process.