Functional Genomics and System Biology Approach in Bioremediation of Soil and Water from Organic and Inorganic Pollutants

In the modern world, where environmental pollution is a great concern, a cost-effective and environmental-friendly way is the necessity of the time. In the recent past, bioremediation emerges as a promising tool to deal with this problem. Several types of microbes and their bioremediation strategies are reported till date. The system biology and functional genomic approaches in bioremediation of wastes are the need of the hour. However, biological activities are complex and need a better understanding of interactions and networks at molecular, cellular, community, and ecosystem level, which can be achieved by system biology approach. The knowledge of these interactions is helpful in understanding the strategies adopted by the microbes at a polluted site. Several molecular and bioinformatic tools such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, etc. are used to gather the knowledge of cellular interaction at different levels on a polluted site. Similarly, functional genomics also use the knowledge of genomics and transcriptomics to describe the gene functions and interactions in bioremediation process and helpful in phylogenetic identification of microbes involved in bioremediation. In this chapter, we discuss the role of functional genomics and system biology in bioremediation process of organic and inorganic wastes generated from various sources including agriculture.