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Microbes with a mettle for bioremediation

Nature Biotechnology volume 18, pages 600–601 (2000)Cite this article

Current technologies for the remediation of polluted environments that rely on nonbiological, physical-chemical approaches are often cost prohibitive. Microorganisms that can convert toxic organic compounds to harmless products, often carbon dioxide and water, have been increasingly used as a cheaper alternative for the remediation of contaminants such as petroleum hydrocarbons and chlorinated solvents1. These microbial methods can often be applied in situ without the expense of pumping out the contaminated groundwater or excavating the soil. A similar in situ bioremediation of metal contamination has proved more problematic, in part because microorganisms are not alchemists; no matter how a microorganism acts upon a toxic metal, the metal is not destroyed. However, in this issue, Valls et al.2 report on an appealing approach to in situ bioremediation of metals in which microorganisms that have been specially engineered to sequester metals are added to contaminated soil. Although the toxic metals remain in the soil, once they are bound to the microorganisms, the metals are less likely to be taken up by plants or animals living in the soil.

Many microbes bind metals to their cell surfaces3, but the binding capacity of the natural microbial communities living in soils is generally insufficient to significantly mitigate metal contamination. In their quest to build a better metal-sequestering microbe, Valls et al. looked to the mouse.

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Figure 1: Engineering a soil bacterium for enhanced sequestering of toxic heavy metals.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Derek R. Lovley is distinguished professor and departhead head and J.R. Lloyd is assistant research professor at the Department of Microbiology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 01003, MA

    Derek R. Lovley & Jon R. Lloyd

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  1. Derek R. Lovley
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  2. Jon R. Lloyd
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Lovley, D., Lloyd, J. Microbes with a mettle for bioremediation. Nat Biotechnol 18, 600–601 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/76433

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