Bioremediation with the use of Bacteria, Serratia Marcescens

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The word “remediate” means to solve a problem, so the word “bioremediation” refers to the use of biological organisms to solve an environmental problem. Bacteria, fungi, protists and other microorganisms in a non-polluted environment are constantly breaking down organic matter, and when the soil is polluted, some of the organisms may die, but others will still be able to break down the pollutants. Bioremediation provides organisms that can consume the pollutants with fertilizer, oxygen, and other conditions to encourage the rapid growth of these organisms. They then would be able to break down the organic pollutants at a correspondingly faster rate. There are two general ways in which bioremediation functions. One way is where specific survival conditions of a microorganism living in the soil are enhanced to increase the rate of a pollutant’s degradation. The second way is when specialized microbes are added to degrade the contaminant. This way is less common. For many types of polluted soil, bioremediation provides an excellent method of clean-up, but in some cases the pollutant is toxic even for the microbes. These pollutants include metals such as cadmium or lead, and salts such as sodium chloride. Although it may not work in all cases, bioremediation is considerably easier than other methods because it enhances the functions that the microbes already carry out in the soil. Along with being easier, it can be much less expensive because the soil does not have to be pumped out of the ground for treatment (Environmental Inquiry-Bioremediation). Serratia Marcescens is a bacterium that is commonly used for bioremediation.
The bacterium, Serratia marcescens, was first discovered by Bartholomeo Bizio in Padua, Italy in 1819. The bacte...

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...ppm of DDT. Effective degradation was achieved with an inoculum pre-exposed to DDT for 72 hours. In the presence of auxiliary carbon sources citrate and rice straw hydrolysate, the degradation was inhibited. In the presence of yeast extract, peptone, and glycerol and tryptone soya broth, there was a complete disappearance of DDT. The optimum conditions for degradation are mesophilic temperatures, (30-40 degrees Celsius) and a near neutral pH. (Science Direct-Aerobic Degradation of DDT by Serratia Marcescens).
Using the new bacteria acclimated to DDT, fields where DDT was once applied can now be cleaned more thoroughly. The acclimated bacteria will still carry out their natural life functions, but now the metabolic processes of the Serratia Marcescens are now more capable of using the DDT as an energy source, and, therefore, the microbes will degrade the DDT faster.

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