Microbial Degradation of Hydrocarbons

Abstract

Hydrocarbon contamination in the environment has been a notable problem since years. Particularly the major oil spills in last few decades, and resulting loss to biodiversity has brought public attention to this problem. Bioremediation is a promising approach for recovery of environmental sites contaminated with crude oil and other hydrocarbons. Many microorganisms have been identified to possess hydrocarbon degradation potential. This review covers an overview of common hydrocarbon pollutants, microbes known as hydrocarbon degraders, major pathways and enzymes involved therein, factors affecting hydrocarbon degradation, and various approaches employed to exploit degrading capacity of microbes for remedial purpose. In addition to making use of inherent catabolic ability of degrader populations, metabolic engineering can be of considerable value in dealing with the problem of hydrocarbon contamination.