Publisher's Synopsis
Environment is referred as the sum total of all the living and non-living things which influence the human life. It includes all the land, air, water, plant, animals and the interrelations between them which affects the well-being of all the living beings. Being a beautiful planet in the Universe and the common habitat of more than 8 billion human population and millions of species of biodiversity. The expanding industrialization and globalization, accentuated the major environmental damages which we are experiencing today. It imposed harmful threats which impaired taintless environments and their dexterity to nurture life. Such drastic changes and technological developments has led to over utilization of resources, thus induced such components that compromises the holistic functioning of the environment and its inherent values. Contamination of environment (air, water and land) with hazardous chemical species is considered to be a serious threat to the ecosystem and mankind. Pollutants can be naturally occurring compounds or foreign matter which when in contact with the environment leads to dreadful changes. But anthropogenic activates includes industrial, agricultural, pharmaceutical and domestic wastes is considered to be the major contributor of xenobiotic pollution.
Xenobiotics such as metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and trichloroethylene are resistant for the rupturing hence, remain persistent in environment. With the increase in anthropogenic activities the major xenobiotic products end up mainly in fresh water and ground water sources, leaches in soil and enters in various biological system. Xenobiotics in the presence of microbes can be degraded into simpler forms by the process of biodegradation. The degradation of the xenobiotic compounds depends upon the nature or type of compound and species of microbes. Some microbial communities utilize these compounds as a source of energy and some may acclimatize xenobiotics, which are introduced into the environment through parallel gene transfer.
