Bioremediation Potential of CRISPR Technology

Environmental pollution, linked to pollutants such as heavy metals (HMs), disposal generated from plastic materials, pesticides, and other degradable and nondegradable wastes, results in serious consequences to the ecosystems, and human wellbeing. Environmental pollutants mostly caused by HMs are the key deriving force for different levels of illnesses in humans including neurological defects, respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses as well as cancer. The cost of health care expenses and costs related to the remediation activity are the principal financial downturns arising from environmental pollutants. Besides, environmental pollutants are also responsible for the decrease in agricultural outputs. Traditional bioremediation measures, using plants (phytoremediation) and microbes (microbial bioremediation), are often restricted by limited degradation rates, and lack the ability to target specific pollutants. Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) is one of the emerging bioremediations approaches globally. This approach has several advantages over conventional approaches. Despite the relevance of CRISPR mediated bioremediation, it suffers from ecological influences, ethical and regulatory concerns, and potential off-target effects. This review demonstrates the potential of CRISPR technology in the bioremediation of environmental pollution. Besides, it highlights the potential of CRISPR-based bioremediation and provides prospects in environmental rehabilitation.