Highlights
– Environmental microorganisms are essential in solving pollution and energy crisis;
– The combination of various microorganisms facilitates the utilization of respective advantages;
– The characteristics of EMs and DMs and their interactions are elucidated systematically;
– The enhancement of electricity production, hydrogen production, and pollutant removal capacity in microbial consortia was first analysed;
– Call for research on functionalized microorganisms and microbial consortia.
Abstract: Compared to single microbial strains, complex interactions between microbial consortia composed of various microorganisms have been shown to be effective in expanding ecological functions and accomplishing biological processes. Electroactive microorganisms (EMs) and degradable microorganisms (DMs) play vital roles in bioenergy production and the degradation of organic pollutants hazardous to human health. These microorganisms can strongly interact with other microorganisms and promote metabolic cooperation, thus facilitating electricity production and pollutant degradation. In this review, we describe several specific types of EMs and DMs based on their ability to adapt to different environments, and summarize the mechanism of EMs in extracellular electron transfer. The effects of interactions between EMs and DMs are evaluated in terms of electricity production and degradation efficiency. The principle of the enhancement in microbial consortia is also introduced, such as improved biomass, changed degradation pathways, and biocatalytic potentials, which are directly or indirectly conducive to human health.
Keywords: Electroactivity; Biodegradability; Microbial consortia; Biochemical interaction
DOI: 10.1016/j.eehl.2023.01.002
Authors: Qixing Zhou*, Ruixiang Li, Tian Li, Ruiren Zhou, Zelin Hou, Xiaolin Zhang
