MINI REVIEW article
Front. Environ. Eng.
Sec. Environmental Catalysis
Volume 4 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fenve.2025.1673461
This article is part of the Research TopicCelebrating 1 Year of Frontiers in Environmental EngineeringView all 4 articles
Enzyme Catalyzed Oxidative Humification Reactions (ECOHRs): PFAS Remediation and Thatch Management
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, University of Georgia, Griffin, GA 30223, United States
- 2University of Georgia - Griffin Campus, Griffin, United States
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Enzyme-Catalyzed Oxidative Humification Reactions (ECOHRs) are primarily recognized for their involvement in the degradation of lignin. Lignolytic fungi produce extracellular enzymes under nutrient-deficient conditions, which can act directly or indirectly through small-molecule mediators to modify a range of compounds in the environment. The enzymes mediating ECOHRs mainly include laccases, lignin peroxidases (LiP), and manganese peroxidases (MnP), whose properties and catalysis mechanisms are summarized and compared in this review. As an example, showcasing the possible environmental application of ECOHRs, the effects of ECOHRs in mediating the transformation of two key per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), were discussed. Reports have shown their significant concentration reduction (40% - 59%) in systems with ECOHRs induced by amendments with laccases and mediators. Nontarget products identification using high-resolution mass spectrometry suggests that PFOA and PFOS degraded in ECOHR systems primarily through free-radical chain reactions. Reports on the use of laccase to reduce and manage the thatch layer on turf grass are also discussed in this review as another example of ECOHRs application. Laccase application at a rate of 2 U/cm² once per month was found to be as effective as traditional thatch management methods, with the ECOHR effects leading to a reduction in the thatch thickness by 18–22% in bermudagrass and 21–30% in zoysiagrass. Overall, this review addresses the concept of ECOHRs, with the major enzymes and systems introduced, and highlights their possible environmental applications exemplified by PFAS remediation and thatch management.
Keywords: Enzyme Catalyzed Humification Reactions (ECOHRs), PFAS, Dethatching, remediation, Laccase - mediator system, Laccase, Lignin peroxidase (LiP), Manganese peroxidase (MnP)
Received: 25 Jul 2025; Accepted: 09 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Munir, Wang and Huang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Qingguo (Jack) Huang, qhuang@uga.edu
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.