76
3.1
Introduction
The growing awareness of environmental conservation has brought out impacts of
human interference on the environment. A huge extent of environmental pollution
is due to industrialisation, which has introduced synthetic and toxic chemicals to the
biosphere, imposing disastrous after effects. Population explosion demanded
increased food production, which led to uncontrolled use of pesticides and herbicides. The increase in the rate of water, air and soil pollution is an index of uncontrolled population and industrialisation resulting in anthropogenic activities and
unchecked release of toxic chemicals. This has ultimately contributed to the disruption of the delicate balance in the natural system.
Every form of life that has survived on earth must have adapted to the situations
of its neighbouring ecosystems. High-quality environmental conditions should be
restored for a healthy normal life on earth. Physico-chemical methods like high
temperature, incineration, adsorption, absorption, UV oxidation, extraction, basecatalysed dechlorination and others have commonly been used for the removal of
these chemicals. But these processes are complex, uneconomical, difficult to execute, not cost effective and invariably end up in the release of additional compounds
as secondary pollutants into the environment (Atlas 1995).
The current efforts to reverse this situation mainly concentrate on biological
methods which are not deleterious to the environment. Bioremediation and biocontrol are two promising areas of research which explore recent advances in environmental conservation.
Bioremediation make use of microorganisms that specifically target particular
pollutants to alter or reduce the toxicity of those pollutants through different catabolic activities. It results in complete and cost-effective elimination of chemical
pollutants through diverse microbial metabolic processes (Abdulsalam et al. 2011;
Longoria et al. 2008). Biocontrol is another area similar to bioremediation where
biological methods instead of chemical methods are being used for pest and insect
control. Biological control or biocontrol is the use of specific organisms or their
metabolic by-products to limit the harmful or negative impact of a plant pest.
Biocontrol is an effective and nature-friendly alternative to increased use of agrochemicals and pesticides.
In both bioremediation and biocontrol processes the active principle involved is
enzymes. Enzymes are instrumental in biodegrading a variety of organic compounds from the simple glucose molecule to the complex mixture of hydrocarbons
and pesticides. Researchers the world over are intensively exploring the possibility
of detoxifying complex xenobiotics with specific enzymes. Similarly, in the field of
biocontrol new and promising approaches are being developed to eradicate pests
and insects from the agriculture fields even at field application level. Application of
enzyme-based novel technologies is increasing day by day. The most impotortant
accelerating component in this context is the technological advancement as a result
of which the industries are now in a position to isolate, purify and characterise
enzymes from any source. The added advantage is that they can be easily produced
I.C. Nair and K. Jayachandran
3.1
Introduction
The growing awareness of environmental conservation has brought out impacts of
human interference on the environment. A huge extent of environmental pollution
is due to industrialisation, which has introduced synthetic and toxic chemicals to the
biosphere, imposing disastrous after effects. Population explosion demanded
increased food production, which led to uncontrolled use of pesticides and herbicides. The increase in the rate of water, air and soil pollution is an index of uncontrolled population and industrialisation resulting in anthropogenic activities and
unchecked release of toxic chemicals. This has ultimately contributed to the disruption of the delicate balance in the natural system.
Every form of life that has survived on earth must have adapted to the situations
of its neighbouring ecosystems. High-quality environmental conditions should be
restored for a healthy normal life on earth. Physico-chemical methods like high
temperature, incineration, adsorption, absorption, UV oxidation, extraction, basecatalysed dechlorination and others have commonly been used for the removal of
these chemicals. But these processes are complex, uneconomical, difficult to execute, not cost effective and invariably end up in the release of additional compounds
as secondary pollutants into the environment (Atlas 1995).
The current efforts to reverse this situation mainly concentrate on biological
methods which are not deleterious to the environment. Bioremediation and biocontrol are two promising areas of research which explore recent advances in environmental conservation.
Bioremediation make use of microorganisms that specifically target particular
pollutants to alter or reduce the toxicity of those pollutants through different catabolic activities. It results in complete and cost-effective elimination of chemical
pollutants through diverse microbial metabolic processes (Abdulsalam et al. 2011;
Longoria et al. 2008). Biocontrol is another area similar to bioremediation where
biological methods instead of chemical methods are being used for pest and insect
control. Biological control or biocontrol is the use of specific organisms or their
metabolic by-products to limit the harmful or negative impact of a plant pest.
Biocontrol is an effective and nature-friendly alternative to increased use of agrochemicals and pesticides.
In both bioremediation and biocontrol processes the active principle involved is
enzymes. Enzymes are instrumental in biodegrading a variety of organic compounds from the simple glucose molecule to the complex mixture of hydrocarbons
and pesticides. Researchers the world over are intensively exploring the possibility
of detoxifying complex xenobiotics with specific enzymes. Similarly, in the field of
biocontrol new and promising approaches are being developed to eradicate pests
and insects from the agriculture fields even at field application level. Application of
enzyme-based novel technologies is increasing day by day. The most impotortant
accelerating component in this context is the technological advancement as a result
of which the industries are now in a position to isolate, purify and characterise
enzymes from any source. The added advantage is that they can be easily produced
I.C. Nair and K. Jayachandran