Enhancing the Pollutant Removal Performance of Bacteria and Microalgae Through Random Mutagenesis Technology: A Comprehensive Review of Effect and Mechanism

• Published in: Current pollution reports Vol. 11; no. 1; p. 28
• Main Authors: Wang, Zeyuan, Hong, Yu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 31.05.2025; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Algae; Antibiotics; Aquatic microorganisms; Aquatic Pollution; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Bacteria; Bibliometrics; Carbon dioxide; Consortia; Earth and Environmental Science; Environment; Environmental factors; Environmental Law/Policy/Ecojustice; Enzymes; Genetic engineering; Heavy metals; Industrial Pollution Prevention; Laboratories; Methods; Microalgae; Monitoring/Environmental Analysis; Mutagenesis; Mutation; Nutrients; Petroleum hydrocarbons; Pollutant removal; Pollutants; Pollution; Random mutagenesis; Review; Scientometrics; Signal transduction; Ultraviolet radiation; Waste Water Technology; Water Management; Water Pollution Control; United States > US; purification; Random mutagenesis; Fluorescence-activated droplet sorting; Microalgae; Microalgae-bacteria consortia; Atmospheric and room temperature plasma; CO
• ISSN: 2198-6592; 2198-6592
• DOI: 10.1007/s40726-025-00366-6

Purpose of Review This review intends to comprehensively introduce random mutagenesis technology and summarize the up-to-date advances for utilizing it to enhance the pollutant removal abilities of bacteria, microalgae, and microalgae-bacteria consortia. In addition, this review also proposes future improvement strategies to further enhance the strengthening effect of random mutagenesis technology. Recent Findings Environmental pollution caused by wastewater, residual antibiotics, and other pollutants has caused severe disservice to the ecosystem and the development of human society. Pure bacterial systems, pure microalgal systems, and microalgae-bacteria consortia have been extensively applied to treat pollutants because of their excellent treatment effects, low cost, and other preponderances. Nevertheless, the pollutant removal abilities of bacteria and microalgae are limited by the individual species characteristics and adverse environmental factors. Fortunately, random mutagenesis technology can effectively solve the above problems. At present, random mutagenesis technology has been proven to significantly improve the removal efficiency of bacteria and microalgae for pollutants such as nutrients, petroleum hydrocarbons, and CO 2 . Summary This review first systematically describes the overall research situation of random mutagenesis technology through the bibliometric tools and related literature. Then, the applications of random mutagenesis technology in enhancing the pollutant removal capacity of bacteria, microalgae, and microalgae-bacteria consortia are introduced, respectively. This review also innovatively summarizes the principles of enhancing the pollutant removal performance of microalgae and bacteria through random mutagenesis technology. The challenges this technology faces in the current research are analyzed in depth, and corresponding improvement methods are given. Graphical Abstract