Rhizofiltration - It is an emerging environmental cleanup technology where absorbtion, concentration, and precipitation of wide range of organic and inorganic contaminants take place from groundwater with the help of plant roots. Roots of many hydroponic grown terrestrial plants, e.g., Indian mustard, , sunflower, and various grasses, effectively removed toxic metals such as Cu2+, Cd2+, Ni2+, Pb2+, and Zn2+ from aqueous solutions. The plants with stable root systems are supplied with contaminated water to adapt the plants and then shifted to the polluted site to gather the toxicants, and once the roots are drenched, they are harvested. It is an in-situ technique, which minimizes the disturbance to the environment.4 3.2.1.2. Remediation of
For this essay I have chosen three topics which I will go into detail about. These three are examples of how microorganisms and microbial communities have been manipulated for the benefit of mankind. The first example is Azospirillium brasilense, a plant growth promoting hormone which can promote nitrogen fixation which is very beneficial to the plant as they have more nitrogen available to use so they can grow more and in turn, is beneficial to mankind as we have bigger and better plants to chose from without the use of artificial fertilizers. The second example is a bacterium which was produced so it is able to glow when in the presence of a landmine. This very interesting quality of the bacteria is massively beneficial as it could prevent
Eutrophication is a process occurring naturally in our environment. It is an artificial nutrient enrichment of aquatic system such as coastal water, river, ponds, lakes or freshwater with excess amount of organic material or inorganic nutrients. This will then leads to an excessive growth of photosynthetic plant life such as algae, plankton or duckweed. Consequently, it triggers the abnormal population of other aquatic organisms. This artificial nutrient enrichment may be occurred as a result of human activities or natural processes.
In rice, qREP-6, a QTL connected with lateral root length, creates a positive association between phosphorus shoot content and tiller quantity in low phosphorus soils (Shimizu et al., 2008). In common bean, QTL analysis exposed the importance of basal and adventitious roots for phosphorus addition (Liao et al., 2004, Ochoa et al., 2006) and also the importance of root hair density and length for phosphorus efficiency in the field. At a lower metabolic cost, the assembly of greater root biomass was associated to two main QTLs accounting for 19–61% of the phenotypic variation under low phosphorus environments (Ochoa et al., 2006). Root exudation and root hair density/length associated with higher production in phosphorus limited soils, and 19 and 5 QTLs connected with these traits were identified in maize and bean, respectively (Zhu et al., 2005, Yan et al., 2004), proposing that all of these root traits should be considered objectives to improve the phosphorus efficiency in crops. Results in rice suggest that the low phosphorus tolerance naturally existing in wild species can be used to improve PAE and PUE in modern varieties (Gamuyao et al., 2012, Wissuwa et al.,
Biotechnology based techniques are attractive and innovative alternatives as they can selectively desulfurize the alkylated DBTs (recalcitrant to hydrodesulphurization) under less severe reaction conditions in an energy intensive manner. Biodesulfurization involves the use of microbial or enzymatic system that selectively oxidizes the sulphur atoms or removes sulfur without attacking the C-C backbone and avoiding the lost of oil value (Kilbane, 2003; Furuya et al., 2001). It has also been investigated that BDS processes also involve the use of isolated enzymes because of its greater technological utility in organic solvents. An enzymatic desulphurization approach as compared to the utilization of complete cells would have at least three advantages i.e. activity at low water
If the reproduction causes more phosphorus deficit than in vegetative growth, then the reproduction might be more responsive to mycorrhizal colonization. Besides that, mycorrhizal colonization may independently influences the sexual reproduction of plant species which consists of both male and female function. For instances, total production of pollen per plant in one cultivar of Lycopersicon esculentum was significantly more responsive to mycorrhizal colonization than total seed production per plant. Mycorrhizal fungi increases water and nutrient supply of plant by extending the volume of soil that are accessible to plants. In general, EM fungi improves the nitrogen uptake with its efficient uptake mechanism and it occupies a larger soil volume.
Harvesting method Advantages Disadvantages Chemical coagulation/ flocculation -Simple and fast method. -No energy requirements. -Chemical flocculants may be expensive and toxic to microalgal biomass. -Recycling of culture medium is limited. Auto and bioflocculation -Inexpensive method.
- Some mangroves will reproduce through extending its root to for daughter plant from the parent plant. Why are mangroves important? Importance of Mangroves in Coastal System - Always appear with seagrass beds and coral reefs. - Trap sediments that would otherwise flow into the sea. - Seagrass beds provide a further barrier to silts and muds that could smother the coral reefs.
3.0 BIOTECHNOLOGY APPLICATION IN SOLVING THE GLOBAL WARMING Biotechnology plays an important role in conserving biodiversity as well as solving the global warming. There are lot of methods and technique which apply the concept of biotechnology. It also offers a lot of advantages which benefit both human and flora and fauna. Below is some of the example of biotechnology application for solving the global warming. 3.1 Microalgae Anthropogenic activities over the past century have Recent technology showed that microalgae have the ability to fix CO₂ while capturing solar energy with an efficiency of 10 to 50 times greater than that of terrestrial plants (Wang et al, 2008).
Composting technique is a technique that can transform organic materials into compost through biological decomposition process by microorganisms in the presence of oxygen. (Sanaz Saheri et al., 2009) Compost contains various plant nutrients such as nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) and can hold water and air for plant, allow trace elements in plant and provide humus to improve the organic matter in the soil. (Sue and Hailu, 2011) Compost with dark brown or black soft spongy humus can holds water and plants nutrients to improve the moisture-holding capacity of soil. Plus, compost which made up of humus can control the weeds, pests and diseases. This is because most weed seeds cannot withstand the high temperature