Environmental contaminants and their management using microorganisms

Abstract Nowadays environment faces rise in various contaminants of both organic and inorganic origin that adversely affect the texture productivity of soil, plants, and ultimately the health of human beings. The traditional physicochemical methods of environment management are still a major challenge due to their toxic residuals products and high cost effectiveness. Bioremediation or the remediation using microbes or their products is an emerging and sustainable method of contaminant management. The microbial strains including bacteria, cyanobacteria, and fungi secrete or synthesize various enzymes, metabolites, surfactant and also produce siderophore, EPS, HCN that help in transforming complex or toxic environmental contaminants such as hydrocarbons, petro products, heavy metals, pesticides, xenobiotics into simpler ones or even complete degradations. In this chapter, we summarize the different aspects of bioremediation and methodologies used by microbial strains used during the bioremediation of various environmental contaminants.