ABSTRACT
Xenobiotics are toxic compounds that are foreign to the body of an organism and have a tendency to accumulate in the environment. They include chemicals such as pesticides, dyes, fuels, aliphatic hydrocarbons such as alkanes, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, nitroaromatic and chlorinated compounds, antibiotics and synthetic wastes, which have potentials of causing harmful effects to man such as cancer. The present study outlines the importance of bacteria in detecting and metabolizing xenobiotics into harmless or less active forms from the environment. Bacterial canonical and non-canonical sensory mechanisms are basically the two classes through which they detect and relay environmental and intracellular stimuli to activate the appropriate response to xenobiotics. Chemosensory pathways also mediate bacterial chemotaxis to xenobiotics, which brings about metabolizing and utilization of target xenobiotics. Xenobiotics are of deleterious effects to the environment. With the help of bacterial sensing mechanisms, they have been able to detect and metabolize the xenobiotics into less harmful forms. Other alternative pathways to bacterial sensing of xenobiotics should be explored so as to proffer better means of sensing as well as utilization of xenobiotics for a healthy environment in the nearest future.
