Wondu Mengesha Metekiya and Melkamu Tadesse Workneh

A method for treating contaminated media, such as soil, subterranean material, and water, called bioremediation involves changing the environment in a way that encourages the growth of microorganisms while reducing the amount of the target pollutants. Evidence suggests that bioremediation is more cost-effective and environmentally friendly than other remediation options. Microbial and phytoremediation are two different types of bioremediations. Living microorganisms are utilized in microbial bioremediation to break down hazardous chemicals into innocuous by-products of cellular metabolism like CO2 and H2O. However, in phytoremediation, contaminated soil and water are removed using plants. Thanks to specialized jumping genes, microbes can evolve biological tolerance to any environmental toxin. Ex-situ and in-situ techniques are used to perform bioremediation on contaminated soils. Ex-situ is the term used to describe the removal of toxins from soil and water, whereas in situ is the treatment of contaminated places. Successful bioremediation has utilized GE microorganisms, recombinant DNA, and RNA technology. New metabolic pathways have been developed by modifying microbial genes to improve bioremediation procedures. The heavy metal that can be released into the environment that is the most hazardous is mercury. Mercury may be taken out of contaminated sediment, soil, or water using the GE Escherichia coli strain JM109. A place contaminated with mercury can be cleaned up using GE bacteria that have the Mer A gene. Bioremediation has been applied to transgenic plants such as Arabidopsis thaliana, Nicotiana tabacum, Brassica juncea, Brassica oleracea var botrytis, and Lycopersicon esculentum that express cytochrome P450 enzymes and have the potential to remove pollutants from soil and water. Mer A and Mer B-expressing transgenic plants can extract mercury and transfer it to the shoot. The metabolic breakdown of TCE from contaminated locations was accelerated by the genetically modified tobacco plants that expressed human cytochrome P4502E1. Two key elements influencing bioremediation procedures are the nature of the pollutants and the environmental circumstances. To increase bioremediation rates on contaminated sites, environmental conditions need to be changed. Therefore, the aim of this review is to highlight the use of recombinant DNA technologies in environmental sanitation.

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