Biotechnology for the Environment: Strategy and Fundamentals

At the dawn of the 21st century, biotechnology is emerging as a key enabling technology for sustainable environmental protection and stewardship. Biotechnology for the Environment: Strategy and Fundamentals captures the dynamism of environmental biotechnology as it addresses the molecular functioning of microorganisms as cleanup agents, their communal interactions in natural and polluted ecosystems, and the foundations of practical bioremediation processes. Chapters on biological pollution control in the chemical industry, biodegradation of persistent molecules (halogenated compounds, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls, pesticides, detergents, etc.), microbial diversity with impact on global change, bioaugmentation strategies, and sensors for ecotoxicological monitoring, will be of value to environmental scientists, engineers, and decision-makers involved in the development, evaluation, or implementation of biological treatment systems.

For information on Soil Remediation, see Focus on Biotechnology volume 3B, and for information on Waste Water and Waste Gas Handling, see Focus on Biotechnology volume 3C.

Autorentext
Professor Dr. Walter Reineke ist seit 1982 Professor für Mikrobiologie an der Bergischen Universität Wuppertal und dort an der Lehre der beiden Studiengänge Lebensmittelchemie und Chemie beteiligt. Er studierte Biologie in Bochum und Göttingen und begann 1972 mit Hans-Joachim Knackmuss erste Arbeiten zum Einfluss von Strukturelementen in Umweltchemikalien auf den mikrobiellen Abbau. Die Promotion folgte 1976 in Göttingen mit einem Thema zum mikrobiellen Abbau von Chloraromaten mit anschließender PostDoc-Zeit bei der Gesellschaft für Strahlen- und Umweltforschung. Er ist dem Thema Umweltchemikalien / Chloraromaten bis heute treu geblieben.

Inhalt
1 Strategic views.- Application of the biotechnological potential for environmental challenges in the chemical industry.- 2 Molecular aspects of xenobiotic degradation.- Molecular characterisation of key enzymes in halorespiration.- Diversity and activity of microbes oxidizing methane and ammonium in northern organic soils under changing environmental conditions.- The haloalkane dehalogenase genes dhlA and dhaA are globally distributed and highly conserved.- 3 Biodegradation.- Microbial aspects in bioremediation of soils polluted by polyaromatic hydrocarbons.- Transfer of catabolic plasmids in soil and activated sludge: a feasible bioaugmentation strategy?.- Coping with a halogenated one-carbon diet: aerobic dichloromethane-mineralising bacteria.- Microbial degradation of pollutants at low concentrations and in the presence of alternative carbon substrates: emerging patterns.- Towards a better understanding of enhanced pesticide biodegradation.- Microbial degradation of chlorinated aromatic compounds.- The role of environmental conditions and biotic interactions between microbial species in degradation of chlorinated pollutants.- Characterised reactions in aerobic and anaerobic utilisation of linear alkylbenzenesulphonate (LAS).- Mechanisms involving the aerobic biodegradation of PCB in the environment.- Enzymology of the breakdown of synthetic chelating agents.- 4 Ecotoxicology.- Transgenic nematodes as biosensors of environmental stress.