Microbial Biosensors: Real-Time Environmental Monitoring for Sustainable Water Management

Water pollution remains a critical challenge in environmental microbiology, urban sustainability, and public health. Urban waterways and aquatic systems are increasingly burdened by complex mixtures of pollutants such as fecal contamination, endocrine-disrupting compounds, pharmaceuticals, and other emerging contaminants. These substances degrade ecosystem integrity, threaten biodiversity, and pose significant health risks. Conventional monitoring tools, though essential, often lack the sensitivity, responsiveness, and scalability needed for dynamic water quality assessment. Recent studies have highlighted the potential of microbial biosensors engineered living systems designed to detect pollutants swiftly and accurately as a transformative innovation in environmental surveillance. Yet, questions remain regarding their long-term stability, specificity under complex environmental conditions, and integration into existing monitoring frameworks, revealing the need for more robust and field-deployable biosensing solutions.This Research Topic aims to advance the development, optimization, and application of microbial biosensors for real-time environmental monitoring in aquatic ecosystems. It seeks to gather contributions that improve detection precision, expand the range of detectable targets, and enhance device performance under real-world conditions. The Topic encourages interdisciplinary approaches that bridge synthetic biology, environmental engineering, toxicology, and data science. Key objectives include elucidating new genetic and biochemical mechanisms for biosensing, exploring portable detection platforms, and assessing the potential of microbial sensors to inform water management, pollution prevention, and public health strategies globally.The scope of this Research Topic encompasses innovations in microbial biosensor design, operation, and application across natural and engineered aquatic systems. It extends to both fundamental and applied research but excludes projects that focus purely on chemical or physical sensing technologies.To gather further insights into microbial biosensor development and deployment for water management, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:• Genetic engineering strategies for specificity and sensitivity enhancement in biosensors• Integration of microbial systems with portable and digital detection technologies• β-D-glucuronidase (iGUS)-based biosensors for fecal contamination monitoring• Fluorescent and bioluminescent reporters for estrogenic and emerging pollutants• Field validation and long-term stability of microbial biosensors in diverse aquatic environments• Data analytics and AI-assisted interpretation of biosensor outputs• Biosensing for public safety, regulatory compliance, and sustainable water governancePlease 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: José E Barboza-Corona, Laura Cerqueira, Hideaki Nakamura, Surajbhan Sevda, Luz Edith Casados-Vázquez Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/81168/microbial-biosensors-real-time-environmental-monitoring-for-sustainable-water-management