Biotechnology for Zero Waste – Emerging Waste Management Techniques (Chaudhery Mustansar Hussain (editor) etc.)

Bioremediation of Pesticides Containing Soil and Water

Veena S. More¹, Allwin Ebinesar Jacob Samuel Sehar¹, Anagha P. Sheshadri¹,

Sangeetha Rajanna¹, Anantharaju Kurupalya Shivram², Aneesa Fasim³,

Archana Rao³, Prakruthi Acharya³, Sikandar Mulla⁴, and Sunil S. More³

1Visvesvaraya Technological University, Sapthagiri College of Engineering, Department of Biotechnology,

Bangalore, 560074, India

2Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering, Department of Chemistry, Bangalore, 560111, India

3Dayananda Sagar University, School of Basic and Applied Sciences, Department of Biochemistry, Shavige

Malleshawara Hills, Kumaraswamy Layout, Bangalore, 560111, India

4Reva University, Department of Biochemistry, Rukmini Knowledge Park, Kattigenahalli, Yelahanka,

Bangalore, 560064, India

6.1

Introduction

Pesticides are defined as substances intended to kill, prevent, or regulate defined

forms of plants or pests. They include weeds, rodents, insects, rodents, and fungi

[1]. Some of the important types of pesticides used include herbicides, insecticides,

fungicides, and disinfectants. They are used to destroy weeds, unwanted vegetation,

growth of molds, mildew, and bacteria. Based on chemical nature, pesticides can be

classified as organo chlorine pesticides, organo phosphorous pesticides, carbamates,

neonicotinoids, and miscellaneous pesticides of biological origin like spinosad and

abamectin [2].

Loss of pesticidal residues from one environmental compartment to another due

to either degradation or transformation is defined as pesticide dissipation. The pesti-

cide dissipation comprises various processes like adsorption, transformation, break-

down, and degradation. Releasing of pesticides into the environment can be either

constructive or destructive as not the entire applied chemical reaches the target site

[3]. Health effects of pesticides may either be acute such as headache, abdominal

pain, nausea dizziness, and vomiting. Along with these, problems related to skin

and eye also persists. Cancer, nerve illness, contrary effects on reproductive tract,

chronic kidney diseases of unknown etiology, etc. are few to add to the list [4–9].

Insecticides like methyl parathion, dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT), and

particularly pentachlorophenol will interfere with the chemical signaling between

legume and rhizobium. This leads to reduced crop yields due to reduced nitrogen fix-

ation. Root nodule development in these plants guards the world economy roughly

US10 billion every year through artificial nitrogen fertilizer [10]. According to the

Biotechnology for Zero Waste: Emerging Waste Management Techniques, First Edition.

Edited by Chaudhery Mustansar Hussain and Ravi Kumar Kadeppagari.