Environmental pollution has become a serious issue of concern across the
world. Intensive agriculture, industrialization, and consumerism have resulted in the
degradation of environmental quality. The presence of pollutants like fertilizers,
pesticides, persistent organic pollutants (PoPs), polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs),
polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), heavy metals, synthetic dyes, etc. have not only
polluted soil, air, and water but also invaded the food-chain via bioaccumulation and
biomagnification, and have emerged as potential threats to various organisms including
humans. Several organisms, including plants, animals, and microbes, indicate the
presence of contaminants and environmental pollution. Among these, microbes have
emerged as one of the potential indicators of environmental pollution, as they are more
sensitive to trace levels of pollutants than plants/ animals/other organisms. The natural
abundance of these indicator microbes has given us an opportunity to monitor
environmental pollution before any major undesirable accidents occur. Based on these
microbial indicators, various easy and rapid biosensors have been developed to monitor
environmental pollution. Microbial indicators are the treasures of nature that have
immense potential to monitor and predict environmental quality for society's safe and
sustainable development.
Keywords: Antibiotics, Biosensors, Environmental pollution, Fertilizers, Heavy metals, Microbial indicators, PAHs, PCBs, Pesticides, PoPs, Synthetic dyes.
