Environmental Biotransformations

All human activities on earth produce some kind of byproduct or pollutant, and over the last decades an increasing number of novel industrial compounds called xenobiotics has accumulated. The development of new technologies from modern microbiology, enzymology and molecular biology has enabled engineers and scientists to tackle some of the more recent environmental problems such as the detoxification of hazardous chemicals. The aim of this special issue is to present an overview of different biological and biochemical transformations of pollutant compounds including xenobiotic chemicals. Biotransformations of aromatic compounds, polychlorinated chemicals, pesticides, dioxins and fuel additives are analyzed and discussed, and critical reviews at three different levels - bioremediation processes, microbial and plant metabolic pathways, and enzymatic transformations - are presented. A reliable know-how in environmental biotechnology as provided by this collection of papers will be helpful in achieving one of society's most important goals today: to reestablish Nature's equilibrium.