From the Coordinator’s Desk!
Greetings!
The environment we live is stressed with many factors due to anthropogenic activities. Hydrocarbon contamination is one of the major threats faced by the environment caused by accidental releases of petroleum products. Hydrocarbon components have been known to belong to the family of carcinogens and neurotoxic organic pollutants. Present disposal method of these compounds is by incineration or burial. Mechanical and chemical methods generally used to remove hydrocarbons from contaminated sites have limited effectiveness and can be expensive. At this situation, bioremediation is a promising technology for the treatment of hydrocarbon contaminated sites. It is cost-effective and will lead to complete mineralization of the compound. Bioremediation is basically biodegradation of the compound using biological agents such as bacteria, fungi or plants. This may refer to complete mineralization of organic contaminants into carbon dioxide, water, inorganic compounds and cell protein or transformation of complex organic contaminants to other simpler organic compounds. Many indigenous microorganisms in water and soil are capable of degrading hydrocarbon contaminants.
The present issue contains a review article that discusses, the basic bioremediation of oil spillage using microorganisms along with other interesting topics such as use of microbots to kill harmful bacteria in water, microbes controlling host genes, mosquito control using bacteria, discovery of new defence mechanisms against bacteria and many more. Hope this issue would bring an impact on the importance of bioremediation and its associated studies.
Dr. C. Arulvasu
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For further details, visit our website www.dzumenvis.nic.in www.envismadrasuniv.org
International Day for Biological Diversity (22th May, 2017)
ENVIS Centre Team
Dr. C. Arulvasu
Co-ordinator
Mr. G. Karuna Sagaran
Scientist –D
Mr. P. Thirumurugan
Programme Officer
Mr. D. Siva Arun
Programme Assistant
Mr. R. Ramesh
Data Entry Operator |
Editorial
Board
Dr. C. Arulvasu
Mr. G. Karuna Sagaran |
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