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Hindi Research Article
Heavy Metals: Biological Importance and Detoxification Strategies
| Oves M1*, Saghir Khan M2, Huda Qari A1,3, Nadeen Felemban M1 and Almeelbi T1,4 | |
| 1Center of Excellence in Environmental Studies, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia | |
| 2Department of Agricultural Microbiology, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh 202002, India | |
| 3Biological Department, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah Kingdom of Saudi Arabia | |
| 4Department of Environmental Sciences, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia | |
| Corresponding Author : | Oves M
Center of Excellence in Environmental Studies King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589 Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Tel: +966509399857 E-mail: owais.micro@gmail.com |
| Received January 27, 2016; Accepted February 11, 2016; Published February 15, 2016 | |
| Citation:Oves M, Saghir Khan M, Huda Qari A, Nadeen Felemban M, Almeelbi T (2016) Heavy Metals: Biological Importance and Detoxification Strategies. J Bioremed Biodeg 7:334. doi: 10.4172/2155-6199.1000334 | |
| Copyright: © 2016 Oves M, et al. This is an open-a ccess article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. | |
Abstract
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.
