Bioremediation Strategies for Microplastic Pollution in Aquatic Ecosystems

Aquatic microbiotechnology provides important opportunities to understand and mitigate the environmental impacts of microplastic pollution. Microplastics, including polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, polyethylene terephthalate, and other polymers, accumulate in rivers, lakes, estuaries, and marine environments, where their physicochemical properties influence microbial attachment and biofilm development. The resulting plastisphere can alter microbial community assembly, metabolic activity, pollutant transport, nutrient cycling, and greenhouse gas emissions. Recent studies using high-throughput sequencing, microscopy, metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, proteomics, and stable-isotope approaches have revealed distinct microbial assemblages associated with different polymer types and environmental conditions. However, much of the available evidence remains correlative, while the extent and mechanisms of biologically mediated polymer transformation are still debated. The specific taxa, enzymes, pathways, and environmental conditions that support meaningful microplastic degradation or modification remain insufficiently characterized. Mechanistic studies that connect microbial identity and activity with measurable changes in polymer structure and environmental function are therefore needed to advance reliable bioremediation strategies.This Research Topic aims to clarify the molecular, biochemical, ecological, and technological mechanisms underlying microplastic–microbe interactions in aquatic systems. It will address how archaea, bacteria, fungi, and microbial consortia colonize and transform microplastics; identify enzymes and metabolic pathways associated with polymer degradation or surface modification; and determine how microplastics influence microbial community dynamics, nutrient transformations, carbon fluxes, and greenhouse gas production. The Research Topic also welcomes research evaluating the transition between stochastic and deterministic processes in plastisphere assembly, validating candidate degraders through functional experiments, and translating mechanistic discoveries into effective, scalable, and environmentally safe microbial-based bioremediation approaches.To gather further insights into microbial processes and biotechnology-based interventions for microplastic pollution across freshwater, estuarine, and marine environments, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:o Microbial colonization, biofilm formation, and plastisphere development on diverse polymer typeso Ecophysiology and community assembly of bacteria, archaea, fungi, and microbial consortia associated with microplasticso Enzymes, metabolic pathways, and biochemical mechanisms involved in polymer degradation, transformation, or surface modificationo Experimental validation of candidate microplastic-degrading microorganisms and microbial consortiao Metagenomic, metatranscriptomic, proteomic, metabolomic, and multi-omics investigations of microplastic–microbe interactionso Effects of microplastics on nutrient cycling, carbon transformation, greenhouse gas emissions, and other ecological functionso Influence of polymer properties, weathering, additives, particle size, and environmental conditions on microbial activityo Microbial degradation assays, isotope tracing, polymer characterization, and functional validation methodso Synthetic biology, microbial engineering, and bioprocess development for microplastic bioremediationo Risk assessment, ecological safety, scalability, and field application of microbial-based remediation technologiesPlease 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: Xianhua Liu, Ajaya Kumar Rout Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/86113/bioremediation-strategies-for-microplastic-pollution-in-aquatic-ecosystems