Bioremediation of Radionuclide Contaminated Environments: Bacterial, Fungal and Microalgal Approaches

Microbial communities have exhibited significant potential to survive and adapt in radioactive environments, marking their importance in efforts towards the management and bioremediation of nuclear waste. Nuclear waste, produced extensively by nuclear power generation, research facilities, medical treatments, and weapons production, poses long-lasting environmental risks. Traditional physical and chemical methods for disposal face challenges such as high costs, limited efficiency, secondary pollution, and environmental concerns of contamination and leakage. Research highlights microbes and fungi capable of not only tolerating but also immobilizing or converting radioactive contaminants into less harmful, more stable forms. However, knowledge gaps persist regarding the precise mechanisms, genetic basis, long-term stability, scalability, and effectiveness of these biological systems in diverse radioactive environments, underscoring the need for focused research to safely apply bioremediation technologies.This Research Topic aims to explore and understand microbial communities that adapt to radioactive conditions, unravel their survival strategies and metabolic pathways, and leverage these insights into creating innovative, robust biotechnological processes for effective nuclear waste bioremediation. Key research questions include identifying radiation-resistant species, elucidating molecular and genetic determinants of radioresistance, assessing the environmental sustainability and scalability of proposed approaches, and evaluating their feasibility in real-world nuclear waste sites.To enhance understanding of the processes mediated by radiation-resistant microorganisms, we welcome submissions in the form of Original Research articles, Reviews, Methods, and Perspectives addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:• Isolation and characterization of radiation-resistant microorganisms from radioactive sites;• Bioaccumulation, biosorption, and biomineralization mechanisms for radionuclide immobilization;• Genetic and molecular analyses of radiation-resistance mechanisms;• Optimization and scalability of biotechnological processes for nuclear waste bioremediation.Please note that Microbiotechnology does not consider descriptive studies that are solely based on amplicon (e.g., 16S rRNA) profiles or comparisons of nucleic acid extracts (e.g., metagenomics), unless they are accompanied by a clear hypothesis and experimentation and provide insight into the microbiological system or process being studied. Topic editors: Ashvini Chauhan, Haitham SGHAIER, Sathiyaraj Srinivasan Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/70627/bioremediation-of-radionuclide-contaminated-environments-bacterial-fungal-and-microalgal-approaches