Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Microbial degradation of microplastics: Effectiveness, challenges, and sustainable solutions

This review summarizes current knowledge on microbial degradation of microplastics, examining the effectiveness of bacteria, fungi, and algae in breaking down various plastic polymers. Researchers found that while certain microorganisms show promising degradation capabilities, the process remains slow and faces challenges in real-world conditions. The study identifies key research gaps and potential strategies for developing more effective biological microplastic remediation approaches.

2025 Current Research in Microbial Sciences 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Microorganism-mediated biodegradation for effective management and/or removal of micro-plastics from the environment: a comprehensive review

This review summarizes research on using microorganisms like bacteria, fungi, and algae to break down microplastics in the environment. While some organisms can partially degrade certain plastic types through fragmentation and chemical breakdown, no single microbe can fully eliminate microplastics. The review highlights that biological degradation is a promising but still limited approach to addressing microplastic pollution, and more research is needed to develop effective microbial cleanup strategies.

2024 Archives of Microbiology 14 citations
Article Tier 2

Biodegradation of Microplastics: Mechanisms, Challenges, and Future Prospects for Environmental Remediation

This review assesses microbial biodegradation as a strategy for reducing microplastic pollution, focusing on how bacteria and fungi break down common plastic polymers under various environmental conditions. Researchers found that while several microbial strains can degrade plastics like polyethylene and polystyrene, the process is generally slow and varies with temperature, pH, and available nutrients. The study identifies key challenges that must be overcome, including improving degradation rates, before biological approaches can be effective at environmental cleanup scales.

2025 Tropical Aquatic and Soil Pollution 3 citations
Article Tier 2

Recent advances in biodegradation of emerging contaminants - microplastics (MPs): Feasibility, mechanism, and future prospects

This review explores biological approaches to breaking down microplastics, including using bacteria, fungi, and enzymes. While some organisms can partially degrade certain plastic types, the process is slow and incomplete compared to the scale of pollution. The research is promising for future cleanup efforts but shows that biodegradation alone cannot yet solve the microplastic contamination problem.

2023 Chemosphere 81 citations
Article Tier 2

Biodegradation of different types of microplastics: Molecular mechanism and degradation efficiency

This review examines how bacteria, fungi, and algae can break down different types of microplastics through their enzymes, and compares the degradation efficiency of various microbial strains. Understanding these biological breakdown pathways is important because they could be developed into practical solutions for reducing the persistent microplastic pollution that threatens ecosystems and human health.

2023 The Science of The Total Environment 167 citations
Systematic Review Tier 1

Bioremediation of microplastic pollution: A systematic review on mechanism, analytical methods, innovations, and omics approaches

Researchers systematically reviewed how bacteria, fungi, and algae can break down microplastics through enzymes and biofilms, and how cutting-edge tools like genomics and genetically engineered microbes are improving biodegradation efficiency. While microbial bioremediation is a promising sustainable approach to microplastic pollution, challenges around scalability and varying degradation rates in real environments still need to be overcome.

2025 Journal of Hazardous Materials Advances 7 citations
Article Tier 2

Microbial degradation and other environmental aspects of microplastics/plastics

This review covers microbial colonization and degradation of microplastics, as well as other environmental processes affecting microplastic fate, and summarizes emerging methods for microplastic removal and environmental remediation.

2020 The Science of The Total Environment 794 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics Pollution and its Remediation

This publication reviews the growing problem of microplastic pollution in the environment and explores biological and technological strategies for remediation, including microbial degradation and engineered solutions. It highlights the urgent need for practical cleanup approaches as microplastics continue to accumulate across ecosystems worldwide.

2024 13 citations
Article Tier 2

The threat of microplastics and microbial degradation potential; a current perspective

This review covers the growing threat of microplastics in marine environments, where they enter the food chain and can transfer to humans along with pathogenic organisms, causing various toxic effects. The paper also explores how bacteria and fungi found in ocean environments could be harnessed to biodegrade different types of plastics as a future strategy for reducing microplastic pollution.

2024 The Science of The Total Environment 21 citations
Article Tier 2

Challenges and Sustainable Solutions for the Detection and Bioremediation of Microplastic Pollution

This review surveyed the latest challenges in detecting microplastics in complex environmental matrices and assessed biological remediation strategies including bacteria, fungi, and algae capable of degrading common plastic polymers. It highlighted gaps between laboratory degradation rates and real-world effectiveness.

2024 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic pollution: Understanding microbial degradation and strategies for pollutant reduction

This review explores how microplastics form, spread through ecosystems, and affect microbial communities, then examines how certain microorganisms can actually break down these plastic particles. Understanding microbial degradation of microplastics could lead to biotechnology solutions that reduce the amount of plastic pollution entering the food chain and ultimately the human body.

2023 The Science of The Total Environment 150 citations
Article Tier 2

Harnessing Microorganisms for Microplastic Degradation: A Sustainable Approach to Mitigating Environmental Pollution

This review surveys microorganisms—bacteria, fungi, and other taxa—capable of degrading microplastics, examining the enzymes, metabolic pathways, and environmental conditions involved, and assessing the practical potential of harnessing these organisms for bioremediation of plastic pollution.

2025 NIPES Journal of Science and Technology Research
Article Tier 2

Research Progress in Microbial Degradation of Microplastics

This review summarizes recent progress in using microorganisms to degrade microplastics, covering bacteria, fungi, and algae capable of breaking down various plastic types. The study suggests that microbial degradation is an economically feasible and environmentally friendly approach compared to physical and chemical methods, though challenges remain in scaling up these processes.

2024 Journal of Physics Conference Series 12 citations
Article Tier 2

Engineering a Solution: Recent Technological Advances in the Microbial Bioremediation of Microplastics

This review examines recent advances in microbial bioremediation of microplastics, highlighting the limitations of conventional treatments and presenting biological alternatives using bacteria, fungi, and algae capable of degrading plastic polymers. The authors discuss key enzymatic mechanisms and the potential for scaling microbial approaches as sustainable remediation tools for plastic pollution.

2025 SPIRE - Sciences Po Institutional REpository
Article Tier 2

Application of green microbiology for microplastic remediation: Current progress and future perspectives

This review explores how microorganisms, including bacteria and fungi, can be harnessed to break down microplastic pollution through environmentally friendly biodegradation approaches. Researchers summarized current progress in identifying plastic-degrading microbes and the enzymes they use. The study highlights the promise of green microbiology as a sustainable strategy for tackling microplastic contamination, while noting that significant technical challenges remain.

2024 Environmental Advances 8 citations
Article Tier 2

Microbe‐mediated biodegradation of microplastics from wastes

Researchers examined microbe-mediated biodegradation of microplastics from waste, reviewing bacterial and fungal species capable of breaking down various plastic polymers and discussing enzymatic mechanisms that could be harnessed for bioremediation strategies.

2023 Water and Environment Journal 13 citations
Article Tier 2

Eco‐Friendly Solutions to Emerging Contaminants: Unveiling the Potential of Bioremediation in Tackling Microplastic Pollution in Water

This review examines bioremediation -- using microorganisms to break down microplastics in water -- as a greener alternative to costly physical and chemical removal methods. While certain bacteria and fungi show real promise in degrading plastics like polyethylene and polystyrene, challenges remain in scaling these approaches. Reducing microplastics in water is important because contaminated water is one of the main ways these particles reach humans.

2024 Advanced Sustainable Systems 23 citations
Article Tier 2

Role of Various Microbes and Their Enzymatic Mechanisms for Biodegradation of Microplastics

This review examines the microbial enzymes and degradation mechanisms responsible for biodegrading microplastic polymers, covering bacterial, fungal, and algal systems that have evolved plastic-degrading capabilities over the past 150 years of plastic production. The authors survey the most promising enzymatic pathways and organisms for biotechnological application in microplastic remediation.

2024
Article Tier 2

Microbial Degradation of Micro‐Plastics

This review examines the role of naturally occurring microorganisms including bacteria, fungi, and algae in degrading microplastics, discussing the enzymatic mechanisms involved, the species identified as effective plastic degraders, and the prospects for applying microbial degradation pathways in bioremediation strategies.

2022 1 citations
Systematic Review Tier 1

Bioremediation of microplastics in freshwater environments: A systematic review of biofilm culture, degradation mechanisms, and analytical methods

This review summarizes existing research on using natural biofilms — communities of microorganisms — to break down microplastics in freshwater. Certain bacteria can degrade plastic particles, offering a potential eco-friendly cleanup method. While the approach is still slow and not yet widely practical, it points toward biological solutions for reducing microplastic pollution in our water supply.

2022 The Science of The Total Environment 114 citations
Article Tier 2

Critical review on unveiling the toxic and recalcitrant effects of microplastics in aquatic ecosystems and their degradation by microbes

This review provides a comprehensive look at how microplastics accumulate in aquatic ecosystems and their toxic effects on marine organisms throughout the food chain. Researchers also examine the potential of bacteria, fungi, and algae to break down microplastics through biodegradation, including advances in genetic engineering to enhance this process. The study underscores both the severity of microplastic pollution and the emerging biological strategies that could help address it.

2024 Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 4 citations
Article Tier 2

A critical review on occurrence, distribution, environmental impacts and biodegradation of microplastics

This review provides a broad overview of microplastic pollution, covering where these particles come from, how they spread through terrestrial and aquatic environments, and their effects on ecosystems. Researchers found that microplastics are now present in virtually every environment studied worldwide, from deep oceans to mountain soils. The study highlights biodegradation by microorganisms as a promising but still underdeveloped approach for addressing microplastic contamination.

2023 Journal of Environmental Biology 21 citations
Article Tier 2

Analytical techniques and integrated microbial remediation of microplastic from aquatic system

This review examines analytical techniques for detecting microplastics in environmental samples alongside integrated microbial remediation strategies for MP degradation, evaluating the state of both monitoring and bioremediation technologies for addressing the global MP contamination problem.

2025 International Journal of Research in Pharmaceutical Sciences
Article Tier 2

Review on impacts of micro- and nano-plastic on aquatic ecosystems and mitigation strategies

This review examines the environmental fate, ecological impacts, and remediation strategies for microplastics and nanoplastics in aquatic ecosystems. Researchers highlight that microbial remediation shows particular promise for breaking down these pollutants, while many nations are adopting regulations to limit plastic contamination of waterways. The study suggests that integrating approaches from nanoscience, microbial ecology, and remediation technologies is needed to address this growing environmental challenge.

2023 Aquatic Toxicology 13 citations