Microbial Indicators for Environmental Pollution

Environmental pollution has become a serious issue of concern across the world. Intensive agriculture, industrialization, and consumerism have resulted in the degradation of environmental quality. The presence of pollutants like fertilizers, pesticides, persistent organic pollutants (PoPs), polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), heavy metals, synthetic dyes, etc. have not only polluted soil, air, and water but also invaded the food-chain via bioaccumulation and biomagnification, and have emerged as potential threats to various organisms including humans. Several organisms, including plants, animals, and microbes, indicate the presence of contaminants and environmental pollution. Among these, microbes have emerged as one of the potential indicators of environmental pollution, as they are more sensitive to trace levels of pollutants than plants/ animals/other organisms. The natural abundance of these indicator microbes has given us an opportunity to monitor environmental pollution before any major undesirable accidents occur. Based on these microbial indicators, various easy and rapid biosensors have been developed to monitor environmental pollution. Microbial indicators are the treasures of nature that have immense potential to monitor and predict environmental quality for society's safe and sustainable development.