Revista de biorremediación y biodegradación

Abstracto

Heavy Metals: Biological Importance and Detoxification Strategies

Oves M, Saghir Khan M, Huda Qari A1,3, Nadeen Felemban M and Almeelbi T

Global modernization is responsible for industrialization, urbanization and several other anthropogenic activities, which involves the huge application of heavy metals. Heavy metals containing products during process and after disposal, release various heavy metals and ions in surrounding atmosphere which severely affect the soil and water quality. Heavy metals contaminated soils in general are nutrient deficient and are likely to become barren in future. If heavy metal polluted soil is used for crop cultivation then the heavy metals deposited in soil enter into food chain and at higher concentration create severe human health problems. On the contrary, at permissible limit, metals are important for enzymatic activity and genetic material integrity in biological system. To understand the importance and risk associated with heavy metals, a genuine attempt is made to present different aspects of metal contamination in soils. Furthermore, nutritive value of heavy metals and toxicity to bacteria and plants is discussed. Finally, different strategies adopted by biological systems to detoxify heavy metals are critically highlighted. This review is likely to help to better understand the over does risk of heavy metals and its biological detoxification strategies.