Biodegradation: gaining insight through proteomics

Biodegradation, a generic term used to describe methodologies to affect cleanup of environmental pollutants, has come up as an improved substitute for ineffective and expensive physico-chemical remediation methods. However, lack of information about the factors controlling the growth and metabolism of microorganisms in the polluted environment often limits its implementation. Recent advances in the understanding of biogeochemical processes and genomics have opened up new perspectives towards new opportunities of pollution abatement. High throughput genomic techniques have revolutionized the remediation process leading to breakthroughs in characterizing proteomes, metabolomes and phenotypes for organisms, communities and populations. These new techniques have allowed us to address longstanding questions regarding the molecular mechanisms that may control the mineralization processes and have an in-depth understanding of microbial community structure and stress responses. In order to explore insights of biodegradation this article discusses ways in which proteomics may be able to meet challenges in biodegradation.