Bioremediation of radionuclides: Emerging technologies

Raj Kumar, Sompal Singh, Om V. Singh

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

19 Scopus citations

Abstract

A large quantity of radioactive waste is being generated as the byproduct of atomic energy and related programs worldwide. There are multiple radioactive waste dumping sites, that, if exposed to the general population, may cause serious life-threatening disorders. Currently, no efficient technology is available that can store the radioactive wastes with adequate safety. Therefore, bioremediation of radionuclides/radioactive waste is an unavoidable necessity that has been tried using biotransformation, bioaccumulation, biosorption, biostimulation, and bioaugmentaion, with limited success. Genetic engineering has been implemented to develop an organism that can effectively detoxify radionuclides along with other organic pollutants present as co-contaminants in the radioactive waste sites. However, the lack of system-wide information regarding factors regulating growth and metabolism of microbial communities can be conquered by newly seeded "-omics"-based technologies, viz. transcriptomics and proteomics. Studies combining functional transcriptomics and proteomics would create a system-wide approach studying the microbial metabolism in radionuclides detoxification.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)295-304
Number of pages10
JournalOMICS A Journal of Integrative Biology
Volume11
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 2007
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biotechnology
  • Biochemistry
  • Molecular Medicine
  • Molecular Biology
  • Genetics

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