Monitoring and Biodegradation of Emerging Contaminants

Emerging contaminants (ECs) are characterized by severe harmfulness, hidden risks, environmental persistence, widespread sources, and complex treatment challenges. They are prevalent in various environments, posing significant risks to ecosystems and human health, and have garnered substantial scientific and public attention. To effectively control EC pollution, stricter regulations, efficient treatment methods, and routine monitoring are essential. Microbial biotechnologies are commonly employed to remove ECs, although their halogenated functional groups contribute to strong ecological toxicity, complicating complete biodegradation by organisms. Therefore, it is crucial to reduce the toxicity of ECs and enhance the capacity of microorganisms to degrade them.

Even at concentrations as low as nanogram per liter, ECs can adversely affect human health and other organisms, causing issues such as endocrine disruption, mutagenesis, carcinogenesis, and congenital disorders. Rapid and accurate monitoring of EC contamination is urgently needed for environmental security. Many innovative bio-based technologies have been developed for monitoring ECs, with biosensors emerging as a promising approach due to their low cost, simplicity, rapid processing, sensitivity, and portability.

This Research Topic focuses on technological innovations for monitoring ECs, such as persistent organic pollutants, pharmaceuticals and personal care products, micro/nano-plastics, and antibiotic resistance genes in water, sediments, and soil. It also explores theoretical and technological advancements in microbial treatment of these ECs.

We invite articles that focus on, but are not limited to, the following themes:
• Enzyme-based, antibody-based, nucleic acid-based, and whole cell-based biosensors for ECs monitoring.
• Microbial treatment of ECs for removal or resource utilization.
• Molecular mechanisms of microbial toxicology related to ECs.
• Biodegradation pathways of ECs.
• Techniques or methods for predicting and evaluating the microbial toxicological of ECs.

Please note that the Microbiotechnology section does not consider submissions limited to descriptive studies and observational that are based on bioinformatic analyses or 'omics' data alone. For example, studies limited to sequencing and sequence analyses of nucleic acid extracts (i.e., 16S rRNA gene amplicon libraries, shot-gun genomic analyses “metagenomics”).

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: microbial biotechnologies, emerging contaminants, biodegradation, biosensor

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.