Microbially Mediated Fate of Emerging Environmental Contaminants

A special issue of Toxics (ISSN 2305-6304). This special issue belongs to the section "Emerging Contaminants".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2022) | Viewed by 5235

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Environmental Sciences, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA
Interests: anaerobic microbiology; methanogenesis; microplastics; micropollutant biodegradation; pharmaceutical biotransformation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Emerging contaminants, including pharmaceuticals and personal care products, are increasingly detected in the environment. Due to the incomplete removal of these contaminants during the wastewater treatment process, treated effluents may be a source of environmental release. These pollutants may be toxic, act as endocrine disruptors, retain pharmacological activity, or have adverse unintended consequences for the wildlife and humans that are exposed to them. Therefore, their biodegradation or biotransformation by microorganisms is an important process for their removal. As the biochemical pathways involved in contaminant elimination are elucidated, metabolic and genetic biomarkers are identified and can be used to predict the potential fate of contaminants in specific environmental settings.

This Special Issue aims to highlight research into the microbially mediated fate of emerging contaminants and the occurrence of biotransformation products in ecological niches including wastewater treatment and freshwater systems. Original research articles, short communications, and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following: biodegradation or biotransformation of organic contaminants in the environment or in wastewater treatment systems, identification of genetic and/or metabolic biomarkers of these processes, and application of these findings to determine the fate of emerging contaminants in the environment.

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Abigail W. Porter
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Toxics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • emerging contaminants
  • biodegradation
  • biotransformation
  • micropollutant removal
  • wastewater treatment
  • microorganisms

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

26 pages, 1192 KiB  
Review
Pharmaceutical Compounds in Aquatic Environments—Occurrence, Fate and Bioremediation Prospective
by Joana P. Fernandes, C. Marisa R. Almeida, Maria A. Salgado, Maria F. Carvalho and Ana P. Mucha
Toxics 2021, 9(10), 257; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics9100257 - 9 Oct 2021
Cited by 52 | Viewed by 4655
Abstract
Various contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) have been detected in different ecosystems, posing a threat to living organisms and the environment. Pharmaceuticals are among the many CECs that enter the environment through different pathways, with wastewater treatment plants being the main input of [...] Read more.
Various contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) have been detected in different ecosystems, posing a threat to living organisms and the environment. Pharmaceuticals are among the many CECs that enter the environment through different pathways, with wastewater treatment plants being the main input of these pollutants. Several technologies for the removal of these pollutants have been developed through the years, but there is still a lack of sustainable technologies suitable for being applied in natural environments. In this regard, solutions based on natural biological processes are attractive for the recovery of contaminated environments. Bioremediation is one of these natural-based solutions and takes advantage of the capacity of microorganisms to degrade different organic pollutants. Degradation of pollutants by native microorganisms is already known to be an important detoxification mechanism that is involved in natural attenuation processes that occur in the environment. Thus, bioremediation technologies based on the selection of natural degrading bacteria seem to be a promising clean-up technology suitable for application in natural environments. In this review, an overview of the occurrence and fate of pharmaceuticals is carried out, in which bioremediation tools are explored for the removal of these pollutants from impacted environments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microbially Mediated Fate of Emerging Environmental Contaminants)
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