Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of Pollutant Degradation
Our group interested in the ability of microbes to detoxify pollutants. There are two ways we can accomplish this:
1- to grow bacteria aerobically at the expense of the substance and convert them to harmless compound CO₂ and H₂O.
2- to convert the compound to harmless chemicals (rather than CO2 and H2O) by the action of the single enzyme; and it is possible to prepare and use this detoxifying enzymes.
The enzymes must require no co-factors for their action and these enzymes catalyse via hydrolytic reactions where water is the only co-substrate.
Our project usually involves seeking out the most suitable enzymes by screening for appropriate bacteria in soil or water samples. At the end of the project, to produce effective systems to provide large quantities of the desired enzyme, the related/suitable gene is cloned and its over-expression engineered. We are also interested to see if our enzymes may have other potential uses in the chemicals industry for example the reaction has a stereochemical dimension. Currently, our group involve in Protein modelling studies/bioinformatic. And also in Genomic and Metagenomic investigation of the selected microorganisms from the extreme environment.
