Bioremediation: environmental clean-up through pathway engineering

Given the immense risk posed by widespread environmental pollution by inorganic and organic chemicals, novel methods of decontamination and clean-up are required. Owing to the relatively high cost and the non-specificity of conventional techniques, bioremediation is a promising alternative technology for pollutant clean-up. Advances in bioremediation harness molecular, genetic, microbiology, and protein engineering tools and rely on identification of novel metal-sequestering peptides, rational and irrational pathway engineering, and enzyme design. Recent advances have been made for enhanced inorganic chemical remediation and organic chemical degradation using various pathway-engineering approaches and these are discussed in this review.