Faculty of Science Essay: Environmental and Marine Biotechnology

This essay examines the intersection of environmental and marine biotechnology, focusing on their application in bioremediation to address pollution challenges. It delves into two key examples: the use of genetically modified bacteria and the application of marine-derived biocatalysts to tackle oil spills and heavy metal contamination, respectively. The essay highlights the significance of these biotechnological approaches, emphasizing their potential to improve biosafety and mitigate the adverse effects of pollutants on marine ecosystems and human health. Furthermore, it critically analyzes the strengths and limitations of each approach, considering factors such as the vast scale of marine environments, the dilution of pollutants, and the time-consuming nature of current techniques. The essay concludes by advocating for further research to refine these methods, aiming for more efficient and commercially viable solutions to combat marine pollution.

The Biotechnology Cocktails
Student Name
University Name
Student Notes

Biotechnology: Biotechnology is a cross-disciplinary field facilitating the manipulation biological
processes using technological means, for human welfare. This emerging field of science has a wide
range of applications in different areas including medical treatment processes, production of
pharmaceuticals, diagnostic tests, industrial processes, environment pollution reduction, animal
health, marine biology as well as in food processing and agriculture. Broadly, the field can be
divided into four types – medical, environmental and agricultural, marine as well as industrial
biotechnology. Recent researches have been combining the means of these four types of
biotechnological divisions to develop new methods and technologies which can be used for human
and environmental welfare. Thus, this essay will focus on such examples of researches
incorporating the usage of environmental and marine biotechnology. Environmental biotechnology
refers to usage of different biological organisms and methods to reduce and prevent soil, water and
air pollution. Marine biotechnology also referred to as the ‘blue biotechnology’ to the field of
biotechnology which mainly deals with the management, welfare as well as sustainable exploitation
of aquatic animals and plants for human welfare. The essay will also critically analyse the two
examples and highlight the significance of the potential impact of the two chosen types of
biotechnologies on the process of bioremediation as well as mention the possible improvements that
can be done to both the researches.
Environmental and Marine Biotechnology: The field of environmental biotechnology deals with
the management and reduction of waste production and pollution of the soil, air, and water. This
field often employs methods like biostimulation, bioremediation, and bioaugmentation to help
eliminate or destroy the wastes and harmful industrial by products. This field facilitates the
manipulation of microorganisms like bacteria, fungi and algae as well as production of transgenic
plants to eliminate the contaminants present in terrestrial and marine environments. Marine
biotechnology is the field of biotechnology which deals with the welfare, management and
sustainable exploitation of marine and aquatic creatures and plants for the welfare of humans. The
field also focuses on the betterment of the fauna and flora population in the marine ecosystem.
Increase in the marine pollution has resulted in the rapid degradation of the quality of marine
creatures and plants. The widespread pollution of oceans and seas has also hampered the human
health by hindering the process of sustainably exploiting the marine life for human welfare. The
main marine pollutants are oil spills from accidents of marine watercrafts or drilling rigs, ocean
acidification due to increased carbon dioxide present in the atmosphere caused by excessive global
warming, emptying of wastewaters from industries and sewage treatment plants into the oceans
causing increased eutrophication, increased presence of toxins and heavy metals from industrial
outlets and agricultural wastes, and increased accumulation of plastic debris. The marine
biotechnology often uses the rich diversity of the marine ecosystem, which facilitates the extraction
of vital biochemical compounds from aquatic animals and plants to help in the improvement of
human health. The chemical compounds are often used in the production of pharmaceuticals,
nutritive food items, as well as other products for human use. Thus the degrading quality of marine
life in the recent years is a growing concern for the humans as well as the overall condition of the
environment. The increased incidents of oils spills in the oceans have led to catastrophic effects on
the environment. Another common pollutant of oceans and seas are the increased accumulation of
heavy metals, toxic chemicals, industrial effluents and sewage wastes which cause increased
eutrophication and are often responsible for changing the pH and salinity of the oceans. The sources
include sewage water treatments plants, industries and factories, as well as waste water treatment
plants. Thus, employing the means of both the two fields of biotechnology- marine and
environmental, to facilitate the process of bioremediation can be very crucial for successfully
eliminating the contaminants and pollutants from the marine environment (Perpetuo, Souza &
Nascimento, 2011). Bioremediation can facilitate the increase in biosafety of not only marine

creatures but humans as well, as marine creatures are not only used for pharmaceutical but also are
a significant part of the food. Thus, processes like bioremediation can help prevent and reduce the
effects of bioaccumulation.
The two are the following examples of the use of means of marine and environmental
biotechnology in the process of bioremediation:
Example of environment pollution: Oil spills generally occur mainly due to accidental leaks of
drilling rigs, marine watercrafts, pipelines, tankers and refineries, into the ocean, where the spilled
oil tends to seep into the surrounding soils as well as into the ground water reserves, which results
in detrimentally affecting both the terrestrial as well as aquatic flora and fauna. The oils spills can
also drastically change the pH and salinity levels of the ocean and affect the quality and
sustainability of marine life in that area (Ivshina, et al., 2015). Increased oil spills can even result in
increased absorption of the oil by both the aquatic plants and the animals which results in the surge
in toxicity and ultimately widespread damage of marine wildlife (Mapelli et al., 2017). Thus the
most successful method employed to help in the degradation of the spilled oil is by adding either
just genetically modified petroleum hydrocarbon degrading bacteria or by adding both oleophilic
nutrients and oil degrading bacteria (Xu et al., 2018). Studies focusing on the problem of oil
spillage have been seen to emphasise the significance of employing the means of genetic
engineering to amplify hydrocarbon oxidising properties of the oil degrading bacterial population
belonging to about 79 genera including – Acinetobacter, Mycobacterium, Enterobacter,
Pseudomonas, Staphylococcus, Streptococcus and more. In 1971, Ananda Chakraborty first
developed a crude oil degrading microbe belonging to the genus Pseudomonas. Prof. Chakraborty,
employed a genetic cross-linking method to produce a bacterial strain which could consume oil
twice as fast as the existing. Naturally occurring oil degrading bacterial species. This bacterium had
four plasmid genes of the four existing oil degrading bacteria. Another bacterium called the
Deinococcus radiodurans was genetically engineered to degrade toluene, a significant constituent of
crude oil. Thus, this was also aimed to be used for bioremediation; however this was never put to
commercial use (Chandra, Sharma, Singh & Sharma, 2013).
The microorganisms can facilitate the biodegradation of oil spills and help maintain the pH of the
ocean between 6 and 9. Genetically modified microorganisms can be designed to either result in
bioaugmentation in which the oil consuming bacteria is added to the other existing bacterial
population or the process of biostimulation where the indigenous oil degrading bacterial population
is degraded by adding oleophilic nutrients like Inipol EAP22, to nutrient-lacking oceans to facilitate
the rapid growth of the bacterial population in the water. However, the main limitations of this
process includes the large surface area of the oceans and the wide range of areas the pollutants
cover, as well as the vast quantities of water present in oceans which expedites the process of
dilution rendering the effectiveness of these bacteria almost inadequate. Researches are being
carried out as to understand the physiology, metabolism and the adaptation of petroleum
hydrocarbon degrading microorganisms to overcome the limitations of rapid dilution in the water
(Das & Chandran, 2011). The environmental biotechnologists have been conducting researches
based of different microbial means to eliminate these catastrophes like designing of novel microbial
solutions which can fasten the process of degradation. Scientists have been trying to produce
genetically modified bacterial species which if exposed to the water along with nutrient rich
solutions can fasten the process of oil degradation without being much affected by the rapid
dilution.

Example of marine pollution: Marine pollutants also include waste water treatment plant disposals,
industrial effluents and sewage water treatment removals, which are mostly released into the
oceans. This is known to result in the bioaccumulation of heavy metals, sewage water, toxic
chemicals and microorganisms in the water degrading the aquatic life. These heavy metals and
sewage wastes are often taken up by plants and marine creatures which pave the way of these toxic
components to enter the human food chain. The increased bioaccumulation of toxic metals like
Zinc, Lead, Cadmium, and more, often results in the bio magnification of these metals in the higher
organisms of the food chain, mainly humans, detrimentally affecting their health. The heavy metals
are often highly cytotoxic in higher concentration leading to diseases like cancer in humans. Thus,
the marine derived biocatalysts formed by genetic and protein engineering can be used to facilitate
the process of bioremediation (Birolli, Lima & Porto, 2019). Microbial strains isolated from
different substrates like seawater, sediments have been found to produce enzymes of different
functionalities like cellulase, amylase, glucosidase, ligninase and more (Bonugli-Santos et al.,
2015). These strains can be then developed as effective biocatalysts by employing different methods
of genomics, metabolomics and proteomics. These marine enzymes are highly effective as they can
work in high salt concentrations, different pH concentrations, temperatures, pressure as well as
radiation (Fernandes, 2014). Thus, marine-derived biocatalysts like dehalogenases and
dioxygenases have high potential in facilitating the process of bioremediation, by degrading the
persistent organic pollutants (POP) (Karigar & Rao, 2011). The process of developing the
biocatalyst from marine derived bacterial species employs the process of DNA extraction method as
well as uses PCR or hybridization with DNA probes labelling technique for sequence based
screening (Nikolaivits et al., 2017). The host in which the extracted DNA is incorporated is usually
in most cases E.Coli. This E.Coli is then cultured in nutrient media to produce the biocatalyst.
The main limitation of this process is the time consuming DNA extraction and bacterial culturing
technique which produces the biocatalysts. The processes including cell lysis can cause
modifications to the sample bacterial isolate, which can alter some of its properties.
Bioremediation is a gradual process. Researches are still being carried out for finding faster
biocatalysts which have rapid growth rates to hep fasten the process of heavy metal degradation, to
reduce the detrimental effects of these toxic compounds on the marine as well as human life.
Biocatalysts are also been developed to target sewage wastes in order to reduce the increased
absorption of sewage nutrients by the marine flora and fauna, to reduce the chances of
eutrophication of the water bodies.
Thus, the fields of marine biotechnology and environmental biotechnology share the same
concern of increased marine pollution which is affecting the aquatic flora and fauna as well as
indirectly affecting human health. Bioremediation is one of the most prominent processes which are
employed by biotechnologists to help solve this issue of pollution. Some of the major contributing
factors of marine pollution – oil spills as well as heavy metal and sewage water disposals in the
ocean were discussed in the essay. In conclusion, even though both the approaches of hydrocarbon
oxidising bacteria and marine derived biocatalysts for reducing marine pollution are promising,
more research needs to be done in order to be able to practically and commercially use these
processes in the prevention and reduction of marine pollution.

REFERENCES
Birolli, W. G., Lima, R. N., & Porto, A. L. (2019). Applications of marine-derived microorganisms
and their enzymes in biocatalysis and biotransformation, the underexplored
potentials. Frontiers in microbiology, 10.
Chandra, S., Sharma, R., Singh, K., & Sharma, A. (2013). Application of bioremediation
technology in the environment contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbon. Annals of
microbiology, 63(2), 417-431.
Das, N., & Chandran, P. (2011). Microbial degradation of petroleum hydrocarbon contaminants: an
overview. Biotechnology research international, 2011.
Fernandes, P. (2014). Marine enzymes and food industry: insight on existing and potential
interactions. Frontiers in Marine Science, 1, 46.
Ivshina, I. B., Kuyukina, M. S., Krivoruchko, A. V., Elkin, A. A., Makarov, S. O., Cunningham, C.
J., ... & Philp, J. C. (2015). Oil spill problems and sustainable response strategies through
new technologies. Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts, 17(7), 1201-1219.
Karigar, C. S., & Rao, S. S. (2011). Role of microbial enzymes in the bioremediation of pollutants:
a review. Enzyme research, 2011.
Mapelli, F., Scoma, A., Michoud, G., Aulenta, F., Boon, N., Borin, S., ... & Daffonchio, D. (2017).
Biotechnologies for marine oil spill cleanup: indissoluble ties with microorganisms. Trends
in biotechnology, 35(9), 860-870.
Nikolaivits, E., Dimarogona, M., Fokialakis, N., & Topakas, E. (2017). Marine-derived
biocatalysts: importance, accessing, and application in aromatic pollutant
bioremediation. Frontiers in microbiology, 8, 265.
Perpetuo, E. A., Souza, C. B., & Nascimento, C. A. O. (2011). Engineering bacteria for
bioremediation. In Progress in Molecular and Environmental Bioengineering-From
Analysis and Modeling to Technology Applications. IntechOpen.
Xu, X., Liu, W., Tian, S., Wang, W., Qi, Q., Jiang, P., ... & Yu, H. (2018). Petroleum Hydrocarbon-
Degrading Bacteria for the Remediation of Oil Pollution Under Aerobic Conditions: A
Perspective Analysis. Frontiers in microbiology, 9, 2885.