ABSTRACT
Pesticide use is expanding worldwide due to a continuous increase in agricultural intensification in order to meet the global food demand. The extensive use of pesticides and their persistence in the aquatic and terrestrial environments may pose a detrimental impact on the ecosystem. The fate of pesticides in the ecosystem is determined by their structure, physicochemical properties and inherent biodegradability. In the recent decade, the presence of pesticides and their residues have been reported in the soil, surface water, groundwater and wastewater. Different methods and technologies have been reported to remediate the pesticide-contaminated environment, which include physical, chemical, biological/microbial and enzymatic processes. Among these, microbial remediation is found to be an inexpensive, environmentally friendly and thermodynamically more affordable technology that can be applied to any material soiled by a pesticide. The major groups of microorganisms, viz., bacteria, fungi and algae, have been successfully used to remediate different types of pesticides by various mechanisms of removal and transformation. These microorganisms can either accumulate and/or metabolize the pesticides and transform them into products that are less toxic or non-toxic as compared to the parent compounds. Nevertheless, more scientific investigations into the technical aspects of microbial bioremediation systems are needed, as they persist for many years in nature and travel to various food chains. This chapter focuses on the current status of pesticide pollution and the role of microbe-assisted remediation of pesticides. Different aspects of microbe-mediated remediation of pesticides such as types, mechanisms and future perspectives have been discussed.
