Fungal-bacterial consortia: A promising strategy for the removal of petroleum hydrocarbons

Abstract

Nowadays, petroleum hydrocarbon pollution is one of the most widespread types of contamination that poses a serious threat to both public health and the environment. Among various physicochemical methods, bioremediation is an eco-friendly and cost-effective way to eliminate petroleum hydrocarbon pollutants. The successful degradation of all hydrocarbon components and the achievement of optimal efficiency are necessary for the success of this process. Using potential microbial consortia with rich metabolic networks is a promising strategy for addressing these challenges. Mixed microbial communities, comprising both fungi and bacteria, exhibit diverse synergistic mechanisms to degrade complex hydrocarbon contaminants, including the dissemination of bacteria by fungal hyphae, enhancement of enzyme and secondary metabolites production, and co-metabolism of pollutants. Compared to pure cultures or consortia of either fungi or bacteria, different studies have shown increased bioremediation of particular contaminants when combined fungal-bacterial treatments are applied. However, antagonistic interactions, like microbial competition, and the production of inhibitors or toxins can observed between members. Furthermore, optimizing environmental factors (pH, temperature, moisture, and initial contaminant concentration) is essential for consortium performance. With the advancements in synthetic biology and gene editing tools, it is now feasible to design stable and robust artificial microbial consortia systems. This review presents an overview of using microbial communities for the removal of petroleum pollutants by focusing on microbial degradation pathways, and their interactions. It also highlights the new strategies for constructing optimal microbial consortia, as well as the challenges currently faced and future perspectives of applying fungal-bacterial communities for bioremediation.

Keywords: Biodegradation; Fungal-bacterial consortia; Microbial communities; Petroleum hydrocarbons; Synthetic biology.