Microbial Interaction with Metals and Metalloids: A Prospective Clean Environment

The history of microbial interaction with metals and metalloids is very ancient which intrigued the thrust of environmental microbiologist for their exploitation in achieving a clean environment. The co-existence of the microbes with metals emerged the enlistment of divalent or transition metals in every prospect of microbial growth, metabolism and differentiation. The outcome of inequity to the heavy metals/metalloids in the surroundings and their improvement, is controlled by diverse metal-microbe-interactions including bio-sorption, bioaccumulation, bio-precipitation, biotransformation or bio-mobilization/ chelation. Though small quantities of these metals are essential for normal physiological function but their intake is subject to intrinsic homeostatic mechanisms ensuring sufficient but not excessive acquisition. The emergence of such interactive mechanisms not only facilitates environmental fate of metals by their redox transformation or altered mobility/solubility and toxicity but also ensures the adaptation of microorganisms in a changing environment. These interaction mechanisms that lead to alteration in toxicity and mobility of metals and metalloids, are being studied so that they can be applied for bioremediation of toxic element. Exploring these aspects of microbe metal interaction not only provide valuable insight into the role of inhabiting microbes in metal and metalloids cycling but also offer promising strategies for bioremediation of theses metals from diverse contaminated environments. The interdisciplinary field of bio-geo-chemical-interactions across the microbiota grips much potential for future developments in understanding several molecular mechanisms in basic research as well as their application in emerging field of bioremediation technologies.