Institute of Microbial Technology, Sector-39A, Chandigarh, India.
Indian J Microbiol. 2008 Mar;48(1):95-113. doi: 10.1007/s12088-008-0010-9. Epub 2008 May 1.
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are compounds of intense public concern due to their persistence in the environment and potentially deleterious effects on human, environmental and ecological health. The clean up of such contaminants using invasive technologies has proven to be expensive and more importantly often damaging to the natural resource properties of the soil, sediment or aquifer. Bioremediation, which exploits the metabolic potential of microbes for the clean-up of recalcitrant xenobiotic compounds, has come up as a promising alternative. Several approaches such as improvement in PAH solubilization and entry into the cell, pathway and enzyme engineering and control of enzyme expression etc. are in development but far from complete. Successful application of the microorganisms for the bioremediation of PAH-contaminated sites therefore requires a deeper understanding of the physiology, biochemistry and molecular genetics of potential catabolic pathways. In this review, we briefly summarize important strategies adopted for PAH bioremediation and discuss the potential for their improvement.
多环芳烃（PAHs）是一种公众高度关注的化合物，因为它们在环境中具有持久性，并且可能对人类、环境和生态健康产生有害影响。使用侵入性技术来清理这些污染物已被证明成本高昂，更重要的是，这些技术往往会破坏土壤、沉积物或含水层的自然资源特性。生物修复利用微生物的代谢潜力来清除难降解的外来化合物，已成为一种很有前途的替代方法。目前正在开发几种方法，例如提高 PAH 的溶解能力和进入细胞的能力、途径和酶工程以及控制酶的表达等，但远未完成。因此，要成功地将微生物应用于 PAH 污染场地的生物修复，需要更深入地了解潜在的降解途径的生理学、生物化学和分子遗传学。在这篇综述中，我们简要总结了 PAH 生物修复所采用的重要策略，并讨论了其改进的潜力。
