Engineered Plant-Microbe Symbiosis Turns Wastewater Metals Into Photosynthetic Biohybrids ->Newswise | More on "Plant-microbe symbiosis for metal remediation" at BigEarthData.ai | #Wastewater
Engineered Plant-Microbe Symbiosis Turns Wastewater Metals Into Photosynthetic Biohybrids
Newswise — Conventional physical and chemical treatments can remove over 90% of heavy metals, but they often require energy-intensive steps and can generate secondary pollution. Phytoremediation is greener, yet plants mainly store metals in biomass, creating hazardous waste rather than recoverable products. Microbial biomineralization can make valuable metal sulfide nanomaterials, but many high-performing sulfide-producing microbes are sulfate-reducing bacteria that grow slowly and are inhibited by oxygen, including oxygen released from plant roots. Common rhizobacteria can alleviate metal stress, but they usually need external cysteine or other sulfur supplements to form metal sulfides. Given these challenges, in-depth research is needed on oxygen-tolerant, root-colonizing microbial systems that can couple wastewater treatment with heavy-metal upcycling. Researchers from Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen), Shenzhen Polytechnic University, Zhejiang Shuren University and the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, report (DOI: 10.1016/j.ese.2026.100780). the system in Environmental Science and Ecotechnology. The article was accepted on 21 October 2026 and is available as a Journal Pre-proof (final Version of Record not yet assigned). The team engineered Vibrio natriegens to colonize water lettuce (Pistia stratiotes) roots and assemble cadmium sulfide (CdS) and lead sulfide (PbS) nanoparticles in the rhizosphere under aerobic conditions, then characterized metal removal,...
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