Application of microbial consortia in degradation and detoxification of industrial pollutants

Abstract

Biodegradation of contaminants presents major challenges and entails not only economic but also environmental benefits. However, it has been demonstrated that biodegradation performances are highly superior when using defined microbial cocultures and microbial consortia more than axenic microbial cultures because the latter do not reflect real situations as they occur in nature. In recent works, degradation and detoxification of industrial pollutants, such as petroleum hydrocarbons, dyes, and textile wastewater, have been studied in terms of the cooperation of different microorganisms demonstrating that microbial consortia development is a strategy that improves and optimizes bioremediation processes. This chapter reviews the current knowledge of degradation and detoxification of industrial pollutants by defined microbial consortia, focusing on the relationships between their members and on the most relevant principles related to their design and function.