Microbial Strategies for Phytoremediation Enhancement

Phytoremediation, a sustainable technology, utilizes plants to clean environments contaminated with hazardous materials, such as soils laden with heavy metals. Despite significant progress, the process can be slow and inefficient. The introduction of beneficial microbes holds potential for improvement, but the underlying mechanisms require further exploration. Such mechanisms include microbial metabolism of heavy metals, enhanced root-microbe interactions, enzyme production altering metal bioavailability, stress alleviation for plants, and nutrient mobilization. Research has highlighted the synergistic effects between plants and microbes, enhancing pollutant uptake and processing.

This Research Topic focuses on mapping and experimentally validating interactions between specific plants and microbial strains to optimize phytoremediation. Key areas include identifying microbial functions that support heavy metal uptake and transformation, and establishing effective plant-microbe combinations across various soil conditions.

We welcome submission of Original Research, Review, Mini Review, Methods and Perspective articles addressing the following themes:

• Mechanisms of microbial influence on phytoremediation;
• Role of endophytic microorganisms for phytoremediation;
• Genetic insights into microbial assistance in phytoremediation;
• Innovations in microbial engineering for enhanced phytoremediation.

Please note that Microbiotechnology does not consider descriptive studies that are solely based on amplicon (e.g., 16S rRNA) profiles, unless they are accompanied by a clear hypothesis and experimentation and provide insight into the microbiological system or process being studied.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Phytoremediation efficiency, Contaminated Soils, Plant-microbe interactions, Microbial-assisted phytoremediation, Rhizosphere microbial communities, Root-microbe synergy

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.