Evaluation of potential of molecular and physical techniques in studying biodeterioration

Recently, researcher's abilities to elucidate the biogeophysical and biogeochemical mechanisms of complex biodeterioration processes occurring at monumental sites has been greatly revolutionized by use of molecular, physical and highly sophisticated so called high throughput next generation sequencing techniques. Such achievements are obvious in several areas of biotechnology and environmental science including geomicrobiological studies related to biodeterioration and bioconservation of ancient historic architectural monuments and artworks. Application of these techniques in studying architectural monuments and artworks is not just limited to predict the prevalence microbial diversity and identifying the mechanism of biodeterioration caused by inhabiting microorganisms, but also to provide in-depth molecular, biogeophysical and biogeochemical basis of how microorganisms respond to different environmental conditions to accelerate the process of biodeterioration, which in turn will offer tremendous opportunities to environmental scientists and researchers to formulate or device preventive and remedial safeguard techniques to control undesirable growth and survival of microorganisms on monuments and work of arts. Further evaluation studies and investigations are currently in progress to upgrade these molecular and physical strategies and to develop reliable approaches to better explain the various processes of biodeterioration and related phenomenon. A comprehensive description of techniques being successfully incorporated and applied in this regard is described in this review. Taken together, it can be anticipated that these techniques possess an astounding potential to turn around research related to geomicrobiological studies related to biodeterioration and bioconservation of monuments.