REVIEW Advances in microbial bioremediation and the factors influencing the process J. Srivastava • R. Naraian • S. J. S. Kalra • H. Chandra Received: 17 June 2013 / Revised: 25 July 2013 / Accepted: 2 November 2013 / Published online: 27 November 2013 Ó Islamic Azad University (IAU) 2013 Abstract Irrational and rapid global human societal development has culminated to a condition of environ- mental deterioration. Accidental leakage and deliberate use of organic and inorganic chemicals have contami- nated the environment up to the level of ecosystem. Advancements have been made in the field of research on bioremediation of the hazardous contaminants espe- cially in last three decades. Microbial bioremediation has been the most understood biotechnological process of environmental restoration. Bacteria and fungi because of their inherent ability to adapt and grow in extreme environments have been employed for either removal or degradation of the chemical contaminants. Researchers all over the world are getting breakthroughs in finding new bacterial strains having plasmid linked degradation/ reduction ability. Molecular biology and genetic engi- neering helped in crafting the microbes for the desired results on environment. Despite having favorable con- ditions, microbial remediation largely depends on environmental factors and on the basic biological char- acters of microbes, especially bacteria being Gram- positive or Gram-negative. Metagenomic studies revealed the importance of microbial ecology as microbes work well in community, i.e., consortia. This review along with several other studies suggests the need of precision during microbial community identification, substrate specificity and the designing of microbes. Keywords Environmental contamination Á Climate change Á Bioremediation Á Plasmids Á Metagenomics Á Gram-positive bacteria Á Gram-negative bacteria Introduction Environmental degradation signifies the damages of varying degrees to the soil, water and air characterized by substantial physicochemical alterations. Several remedies (natural and man-made) have been suggested in last three decades to mitigate the pollution from the environment. The literature is vast and is far beyond the capacity to be included here, however, e.g., Lovely (2003), Paul et al. (2005), Singh et al. (2006), Wei et al. (2007), Badri et al. (2009), Chojnacka (2010), Magan et al. (2010), Rajkumar et al. (2010), Glick (2010), Maphosa et al. (2012) and Zhang et al. (2012), delin- eating latest and upgraded techniques involving living organisms, specifically plants and microbes, for the removal and/or immobilization of contaminants, known as bioremediation. Phytoremediation (remedia- tion through plants) is a novel approach (Shukla et al. 2009), however; it has certain technical shortcomings such as management of biomass (Wei et al. 2007) and the growth conditions as plants are restricted only to J. Srivastava (&) Department of Applied Science, Faculty of Environmental Science, Himalayan Institute of Technology and Management, BKT, NH - 24, Lucknow 227005, UP, India e-mail: jks_345@rediffmail.com R. Naraian Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Science, Veer Bahadur Singh Purvanchal University, Jaunpur, UP, India S. J. S. Kalra Department of Chemistry, Dayanand Anglo Vedic College, Civil Lines, Kanpur, UP, India H. Chandra Department of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, High Altitude Plant Physiology Research Center, H.N.B. Garhwal University, Srinagar, Uttrakhand, India 123 Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. (2014) 11:1787–1800 DOI 10.1007/s13762-013-0412-z