Enzymes of Significance to the Restoration of Polluted Systems: Traditional and Advanced Approaches.

Extensive research efforts have been directed toward the search for novel methods to remediate polluted environments. The use of microorganisms (bioremediation) and plants (phytoremediation) to remediate polluted environments is a promising and growing area of environmental biotechnology. They have a potential to remove pollutants from the environment without harsh side effects and may be utilized in situ, i.e. in the contaminated place itself, offering numerous advantages over ex situ technologies. Intra-, ecto- and extra-cellular enzymes are, ultimately, the main effectors of pollutant transformation during plant and/or microbial processes. Enzymes are the proximate agents of organics transformation in soils; their production (mainly of extra-cellular enzymes) is controlled by several factors including at the organism level the pairing of low-level constitutive synthesis with induction-repression pathways, and at the microbial population and community levels the quorum-sensing systems that regulate unique and varied cellular responses as well as protection from competing microbial communities. Traditional and advanced approaches are available not only to increase and improve the performance of enzymes for their practical, successful application but also to monitor their effectiveness in the restoration of polluted environment. In particular, recent technological advances in molecular biology and proteomics may provide new tools that are applicable to enzyme studies.