Environmental Bioengineering and Geomicrobiology

Topic Information

Dear Colleagues,

Environmental microorganisms play key roles in driving the biogeochemical cycles of different elements by catalyzing a large diversity of redox reactions and, thus, contribute greatly to maintaining environmental sustainability. They display highly diverse abilities to catalyze the synthesis, degradation, modification, mobilization, immobilization, oxidation, reduction, mineralization, and weathering of a vast number of different compounds. Therefore, environmental microorganisms have been widely used in bioengineering applications, such as bioremediation, bioleaching, water and groundwater treatment, biofuels, biosynthesis, metabolite production, biofertilizer, solid waste treatment, and wastewater treatment. This Special Issue on “Environmental Bioengineering and Geomicrobiology” will publish original research papers and comprehensive reviews about environmental microorganisms and their functions and applications in bioengineering. Topics for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following: (a) Redox reactions catalyzed by environmental microorganisms and their roles in biogeochemical cycles. (b) Interactions between microbes and minerals. (c) The biodegradation and transformation of environmental contaminants, including organic and inorganic contaminants, as well as heavy metals. (d) The functional and genetic diversity of environmental microorganisms, revealed via laboratory experiments and metagenomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic analyses. (e) The bioremediation of soils, sediments, surface water, and groundwater. (f) The microbial treatment of solid waste and wastewater. (g) Biofertilizer and interactions between microbes and plants. (h) Extremophilic microorganisms: diversity and functions. (i) Microbial synthesis. (j) Engineered microorganisms.

Prof. Dr. Xian-Chun Zeng
Prof. Dr. Deng Liu
Topic Editors

Keywords

Participating Journals

Journal Name	Impact Factor	CiteScore	Launched Year	First Decision (median)	APC
Applied Microbiology applmicrobiol	-	-	2021	13.3 Days	CHF 1000	Submit
Bioengineering bioengineering	4.6	4.2	2014	17.7 Days	CHF 2700	Submit
Biology biology	4.2	4.0	2012	18.7 Days	CHF 2700	Submit
Environments environments	3.7	5.9	2014	23.7 Days	CHF 1800	Submit
Microorganisms microorganisms	4.5	6.4	2013	15.1 Days	CHF 2700	Submit

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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All Applied Microbiology Bioengineering Biology Environments Microorganisms

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16 pages, 2818 KiB  

Open AccessArticle

Red Claw Crayfish Cherax quadricarinatus Cultivation Influences the Dynamics and Assembly of Benthic Bacterial Communities in Paddy Fields

by Yiran Hou, Rui Jia, Wei Sun, Houmeng Ding, Bing Li and Jian Zhu

Environments 2023, 10(10), 178; https://doi.org/10.3390/environments10100178 - 09 Oct 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1533

Abstract

Red claw crayfish Cherax quadricarinatus has emerged as a highly significant and suitable species to be raised in integrated rice–aquatic animal farming systems. To optimize an integrated aquaculture and agriculture (IAA) system and ensure sustainable utilization and development of land resources, an IAA [...] Read more.

Red claw crayfish Cherax quadricarinatus has emerged as a highly significant and suitable species to be raised in integrated rice–aquatic animal farming systems. To optimize an integrated aquaculture and agriculture (IAA) system and ensure sustainable utilization and development of land resources, an IAA system combining rice cultivation with red claw crayfish culture was implemented to assess the impacts of rice–red claw crayfish co-culturing on the dynamics and assembly of bacterial communities in paddy soils. We established two experimental groups, each with eight replicates. We utilized 16S rRNA Illumina high-throughput sequencing to access the bacterial community composition and assembly in paddy soils. Red claw crayfish C. quadricarinatus cultivation did not significantly affect the alpha diversity of the bacterial community in the paddy field, but it obviously increased the relative abundances of the phyla Acidobacteriota and Pseudomonadota involved in organic matter degradation and nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon cycling. Red claw crayfish cultivation could lead to more complex bacterial communities, increased bacterial resistance to disturbances, the promotion of niche differentiation, and increased competition intensity between bacterial communities during the mid-cultivation period. Nitrogen emerged as a critical factor influencing the bacterial community composition in paddy soil during the culture period, and the red claw crayfish cultivation affected the bacterial community by altering the ammonia concentration in the paddy soil. As the culture progressed, the assembly of the bacterial community in the paddy soil was predominantly driven by stochastic processes, and red claw crayfish cultivation accelerated the evolution of the bacterial community assembly towards a stochastic process. Our study offers valuable insights into the dynamic changes occurring in the composition and assembly of bacterial communities in paddy soils in response to red claw crayfish cultivation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Topic Environmental Bioengineering and Geomicrobiology)

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18 pages, 1389 KiB  

Open AccessReview

Potential of Porous Substrate Bioreactors for Removal of Pollutants from Wastewater Using Microalgae

by Dora Allegra Carbone and Michael Melkonian

Bioengineering 2023, 10(10), 1173; https://doi.org/10.3390/bioengineering10101173 - 09 Oct 2023

Viewed by 1102

Abstract

Porous substrate bioreactors (PSBRs) are a new technology to grow microalgae immobilized in a dense culture and solve some problems linked to suspended cultivation. During recent years, this technology has been used in laboratory and pilot setups in different fields of environmental biotechnology, [...] Read more.

Porous substrate bioreactors (PSBRs) are a new technology to grow microalgae immobilized in a dense culture and solve some problems linked to suspended cultivation. During recent years, this technology has been used in laboratory and pilot setups in different fields of environmental biotechnology, such as wastewater treatment. The aim of this short review is to introduce the PSBR technology, summarize the results obtained in removing some pollutants from wastewater, provide an assessment of the potential of PSBRs for wastewater treatment, and the subsequent use of the algal biomass for other purposes. Full article

(This article belongs to the Topic Environmental Bioengineering and Geomicrobiology)

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17 pages, 3685 KiB  

Open AccessArticle

Microbial Consortium HJ-SH with Very High Degradation Efficiency of Phenanthrene

by Rui Chen, Zhenhua Zhao, Tao Xu and Xiaoqiang Jia

Microorganisms 2023, 11(10), 2383; https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms11102383 - 23 Sep 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 975

Abstract

Phenanthrene (PHE) is one of the model compounds of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). In this study, a natural PHE-degrading microbial consortium, named HJ-SH, with very high degradation efficiency was isolated from soil exposed to long-term PHE contamination. The results of GC analysis showed [...] Read more.

Phenanthrene (PHE) is one of the model compounds of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). In this study, a natural PHE-degrading microbial consortium, named HJ-SH, with very high degradation efficiency was isolated from soil exposed to long-term PHE contamination. The results of GC analysis showed that the consortium HJ-SH degraded 98% of 100 mg/L PHE in 3 days and 93% of 1000 mg/L PHE in 5 days, an efficiency higher than that of any other natural consortia, and even most of the engineered strains and consortia reported so far. Seven dominating strains were isolated from the microbial consortium HJ-SH, named SH-1 to SH-7, which were identified according to morphological observation and 16S rDNA sequencing as Pseudomonas sp., Stenotrophomonas sp., Delftia sp., Pseudomonas sp., Brevundimonas sp., Curtobacterium sp., and Microbacterium sp., respectively. Among all the seven single strains, SH-4 showed the strongest PHE degradation ability, and had the biggest degradation contribution. However, it is very interesting that the microbial consortium can hold its high degradation ability only with the co-existence of all these seven single strains. Moreover, HJ-SH exhibited a very high tolerance for PHE, up to 4.5 g/L, and it can degrade some other typical organic pollutants such as biphenyl, anthracene, and n-hexadecane with the degradation ratios of 93%, 92% and 70%, respectively, under 100 mg/L initial concentration in 5 days. Then, we constructed an artificial consortium HJ-7 consisting of the seven single strains, SH-1 to SH-7. After comparing the degradation ratios, cell growth, and relative degradation rates, it was concluded that the artificial consortium HJ-7 with easier reproducibility, better application stability, and larger room for modification can largely replace the natural consortium HJ-SH. In conclusion, this research provided novel tools and new insights for the bioremediation of PHE and other typical organic pollutants using microbial consortia. Full article

(This article belongs to the Topic Environmental Bioengineering and Geomicrobiology)

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11 pages, 959 KiB  

Open AccessArticle

Novel and Simple Method for Quantification of 2,4,6-Trichlorophenol with Microbial Conversion to 2,4,6-Trichloroanisole

by Saki Goto, Taro Urase and Kaito Nakakura

Microorganisms 2023, 11(9), 2133; https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms11092133 - 23 Aug 2023

Viewed by 942

Abstract

Contamination with 2,4,6-trichloroanisole (TCA) often causes taste and odor (T&O) problems in drinking water due to its low odor threshold concentration. Microbial O-methylation of the precursor 2,4,6-trichlorophenol (TCP) would be the dominant mechanism for TCA formation. Simple and rapid measurement of TCP [...] Read more.

Contamination with 2,4,6-trichloroanisole (TCA) often causes taste and odor (T&O) problems in drinking water due to its low odor threshold concentration. Microbial O-methylation of the precursor 2,4,6-trichlorophenol (TCP) would be the dominant mechanism for TCA formation. Simple and rapid measurement of TCP in the low concentration range is necessary to control the problems induced by TCA. In this study, the combination of microbial conversion and instrumental analysis was proposed as a method of TCP quantification. Fungi and bacteria were isolated from various water samples and examined for their ability to produce TCA from TCP. As a result, a strain exhibiting quantitative TCA production and a high growth rate was obtained and named Mycolicibacterium sp. CB14. The conversion rate of TCP to TCA by this strain was found to be high and stable (85.9 ± 5.3%), regardless of the applied TCP concentration, although within the range of 0.1–10 µg/L. The limits of detection and quantification for TCP by this proposed method were determined to be 5.2 ng/L and 17.3 ng/L, respectively. By improving the methods, Mycolicibacterium sp. CB14 could be used for the quantification of TCP at very low concentration levels, which is sufficient to manage the T&O problem caused by TCA. Full article

(This article belongs to the Topic Environmental Bioengineering and Geomicrobiology)

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