Culture-dependent to culture-independent approaches for the bioremediation of paints: a review

Environmental pollution by paint effluents is a public health threat, distressing total biodiversity and environment. Environmental treatment options like bioremediation mediated by microorganisms is still developing and is considered as a modern approach for the environmentalists worldwide. Thus present review was sought to explore the culture-dependent (isolation) to culture-independent (multi-omics) approaches for the bioremediation of paints. Bioremediation is once considered as safe, reliable and eco-friendly yet facing challenges. Microbes exhibiting bioremediation potential were screened and characterized but, in most of the studies, cannot completely utilize the targeted pollutant or were unsuccessful against pollutant at in situ settings. Thereafter, consortia studies were conducted and found that microbial performance remained excellent in synergistic while negligible in antagonistic association. Consortia studies were most frequently carried out using bacteria while few studies were conducted on the fungi alone and their association with bacteria. Moreover, the combined strategies of consortia, genes and enzymes were also elucidated and later the genetically modified microbes were also tested for in situ cleanup. Nowadays, metagenomics approaches which reveal the functional gene information of microbes derived from the DNA of microbiome with different physiological states were studied for environmental cleanup. At present from the literature insight, it is predicted that the bioremediation future lies in the understanding of metaphenome (product of metagenome and available resources).