Microbial Weathering of Rocks in Natural Habitat

Bio-weathering is defined as the decay, erosion, and decomposition of rock and its minerals in natural habitats with the aid of living organisms, like bacteria, fungi, lichens, mosses, plants, and animals. Microbes play a crucial role in the weathering of rocks in natural habitats, including extreme conditions, like Arctic, Antarctic regions, deserts, and mines. The decomposition of rocks and minerals dissolution contributes to an increase in soil fertility, establishing life forms in extreme environments, removal of contaminants from the soil, cycling of metals, and many other geochemical characteristics and phenomena. Microbial weathering of rocks depends on various physical and chemical factors. The mineral distribution in the environment leads to induction of the expression of specific genes in microbes involved in metabolic pathways, like acidification, chelation, redox reactions, motility, and biofilm formation to enhance the weathering process. Weathering also finds application in bioremediation process and biorestoration of monuments, thereby protecting the cultural heritage. In this chapter, we have reviewed the microbial interactions in environments related to weathering in diverse geological followed by omics approaches, like metagenomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics, to understand the diversity and processes involved in bio-weathering.