Microorganisms: Tools of Sustainability

Contents: Foreword. Preface. 1. Role of Microorganisms in ecosystem/Nisha Rani, Madhavi Joshi and Anand Sagar. 2. Microbial applications in environment management/Sharma Mona and Bansal Deepak. 3. Microbial biotechnology – an efficient tool for pollution control in explosive industry/Pritam Sangwan and S. Mary Celin. 4. Role of Microorganisms in nutraceuticals: production and applications/Meenu Thakur, Kiran, Kumari Shanu, Satish. 5. Role of microbes in human health/Vijay Kumar and Shiwani Guleria. 6. Microbial biodiesel: a reservoir for future fuel/Shashi Kant Bhatia, Ravi Kant Bhatia, Arvind Kumar Bhatt and Yung-Hun Yang. 7. Role of Microorganisms in bioethanol production/Meenakshi Suhag. 8. Hydrogen production by microalgae and Cyanobacteria/Kamra Anjana. 9. Amylases: an overview/Kalpana Hiteshi and Reena Gupta. 10. Algae: An Eco-friendly approach towards commercial products/Bala Kiran, Ritunesh Kumar, Neelam Patidar. 11. Hidden Fungi: Role in sustainable development in 21st Century/Madhavi Joshi, Pooja Pathania and Anand Sagar. 12. Bioactive moringa oleifera and its endophytes/Daljit Singh Arora and Navdeep Kaur. 13. Bacterial communication: Mechanism, inhibition and applications/Bhatia Ravi Kant, Bhatia Shahi Kant, Vishal Ahuja and Bhatt Arvind Kumar. Index.

Microorganisms are a group of innate microbial consortium that inhabits the soil as well as surfaces (inside and outside) of all living organisms. The exploration of microbial diversity has been spurred by the fact that microbes are essential for the biosphere. They have the potentiality in biodegradation, bioremediation, nitrogen fixation, improving soil fertility, production of plant growth hormones, nutraceuticals, industrially important enzymes and biofuels. Dozens of industrial products are currently being formulated in large quantity from petrochemicals, such as ethanol, organic acids and amino acids, are equally obtainable through microbial fermentation. The book is prepared by extracting fundamental concepts and meanings from ever growing field of the role of microbes in sustainable development. The objective of this book is to cover comprehensively different groups of microorganisms and their roles in sustainable agriculture, ecosystem and industries. This book is organized into 13 chapters. The authors have made an attempt to foresight some of the innovative applications of various microbes in current scenario and their involvement for sustainable development in coming decades. The book will be of great help to students and researchers pursuing career in the field of Microbiology. (jacket)