The role of Microbial Biotechnology in Improving the Human Environment<br />Sarmad M. J.Bakly<br /><br />In various manufacturing fields, humanity has seen immense development in the last century. Industries such as mining, health and medicine (in particular therapeutics-antibiotics), textiles, fertilizers, pesticides, petrochemicals and refineries are among the many that have improved as a result of scientific advances. Such rapid development, however, has also contributed to high-uncontrolled discharge of highly toxic substances.<br />Other causes are the indiscriminate use of antibiotics, in addition to industrialization, population growth, over-exploitation of natural resources, deforestation, degradation of fertile soils, unintended deliberate release of hydrocarbons to the sea and land (oil spills), the use of chemical compounds such as pesticides.<br />Microbial biotechnology provides environmentally safe methods that can be easily extended to the classification of the issue causative agent for the microbial strain indicator and those useful for environmental bioremediation. The features of microbial-driven environmental remediation would support the community by exploring the pharmacogenomics capabilities of microorganisms that promote the use of toxic compounds and biotransformation for functional intermediates and items.<br />The conversion of agro-industrial waste products or industrial waste water into<br />commercially useful, value-added products has already been used as an attractive alternative. It is widely expected that a candidate microbe and metabolite intended for bioremediation should be non-pathogenic, non-toxic, economically and commercially viable, active and stable under harsh environmental conditions.<br /><br /><br />Recent advances in biotechnology, OMICS, and genetic engineering methods pave the way for these preferential criteria to be met, identifying strain markers, pathways of contamination, and generating customized metabolites of microbes that can be used effectively for environmental bio-remediation.<br />The thematic issue 'Microbial Biotechnology and Environmental Bioremediation' provides an insight into recent findings on antibiotic resistance and microorganism indicators, heavy metal contamination and applications related to resistant microbes, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and bi-microorgs through research papers and reviews written by different biotechnologists and experts in their field.<br /><br />This marginalizes the efficacy of the medication and is mounting a serious human health crisis. The contribution from Paulson and coworkers highlights the problem and suggests that the amount of antibiotic-resistant bacteria can be used in the wildlife environment as a 'bio-indicator' to monitor pollution and to assess the efficacy of efforts to curb it. One of the big environmental problems, primarily linked to the petroleum industry, is the contamination of soil and water by hydrocarbons.<br />Environmental concerns related to environmental PAHs, their processes, issues of<br />environmental fate and toxicity, as well as various cost-effective bioremediation techniques. An alternative to reducing atmospheric pollution and, at the same time, industrial production of useful bioproducts could be the use of various toxic and waste materials.<br /><br /><br /><br />References<br />Joshi, S. J. (2016). Microbial biotechnology and environmental bioremediation: Challenges and prospects. Open Biotechnology Journal, 10, 287-288.<br /><br />