Role of Enzymes in the Remediation of Polluted Environments

Abstract

Environmental pollution is growing more and more due to the indiscriminate and frequently deliberate release of hazardous, harmful substances. Research efforts have been devoted to develop new, low-cost, low-technology, eco-friendly treatments capable of reducing and even eliminating pollution in the atmosphere, the hydrosphere and soil environments. Among biological agents, enzymes have a great potentiality to effectively transform and detoxify polluting substances because they have been recognized to be able to transform pollutants at a detectable rate and are potentially suitable to restore polluted environments. This brief review will examine some classes of pollutants and enzymes capable of transforming them effectively into innocuous products. Particular attention will be devoted to pollutants with a high polluting potential such as polyphenols, nitriles, PAHs, cyanides and heavy metals. The enzymatic processes developed and implemented in some of these detoxification treatments will be examined in details. The main advantages as well as the main drawbacks that are still present in the extensive application of enzymes in the in situ restoration of polluted environments will be discussed.

Comparison of selenite (IV) and selenate (VI) effect on some oxidoreductive enzymes in soil contaminated with spent engine oil

“…The increase of dehydrogenase activity could be due to the involvement of specific microorganisms in the metabolism of polyaromatic hydrocarbons, which The same letter means a homogenous group in the columns for an enzyme (P < 0.05) could serve as a carbon source for the microbial growth (Margesin et al 2000). Oxidoreductases play an important role in energy transformation in the respiration chain and participate in the synthesis of soil humics and in the soil formation process (Rao et al 2010). Polyphenol oxidases, including ο-diphenol oxidase, mediate biogeochemical processes in soils, including microbial acquisition of carbon and nitrogen, lignin degradation, carbon mineralization and sequestration, and dissolved organic carbon export (Bach et al 2013).…”

Microbially-induced Carbonate Precipitation for Immobilization of Toxic Metals

“…Most of the degradative enzymes involved in organic bioremediation are mono-or di-oxygenases, oxidoreductases, dehalogenases, 7 cytochrome P450 mono-oxygenases, enzymes involved in lignin degradation and phosphotriesterases (Pieper, Martins dos Santos, & Golyshin, 2004;Rao et al, 2010).…”

The ways to increase efficiency of soil bioremediation

“…In addition, they still require the development of methods for the manufacturing of the enzyme preparations intended specifically for bioremediation technologies and optimizing the production of enzymes in terms of financing [3,52]. Therefore, it seems that the most effective solution would be to use the bioremediation techniques combining the potential of microorganisms with the use of enzymes [3].…”