The Metabolic Pathways of Biodegradation

1 Introduction

1.1 History

The decay (biodegradation) of organic matter has been a part of life throughout human history. When the organic matter was a person’s food, clothing or dwelling, biodegradation was no doubt very undesirable. In this context, humans have, through most of their history, sought to prevent or, more practically, slow down biodegradation. Animal hides were treated with tannins to crosslink proteins and prevent their degradation. Food was dried, salted or pickled to prevent microbial growth, and hence, spoilage.

Though solutions to biodegradation were found, the underlying causes of the phenomenon were less clear. But no doubt, correlations were made by direct observation of macroscopic microorganisms, typically fungi, on rotting material. People could see wood rot fungi on decaying wood or hyphal masses on bread. And, in fact, some of the foundations for the science of microbiology were established with macroscopic fungi. Micheli showed that fungi now known as Mucor...