Related Experiment Video
Updated: Nov 24, 2025

Bioprospecting of Extremophilic Microorganisms to Address Environmental Pollution
Published on: December 30, 2021
Deciphering and engineering photosynthetic cyanobacteria for heavy metal bioremediation
Jinyu Cui1, Yaru Xie1, Tao Sun2
1Laboratory of Synthetic Microbiology, School of Chemical Engineering & Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, PR China; Frontier Science Center for Synthetic Biology and Key Laboratory of Systems Bioengineering, Ministry of Education of China, Tianjin 300072, PR China; Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering, Tianjin 300072, PR China.
Abstract:
Environmental pollution caused by heavy metals has received worldwide attentions due to their ubiquity, poor degradability and easy bioaccumulation in host cells. As one potential solution, photosynthetic cyanobacteria have been considered as promising remediation chassis and widely applied in various bioremediation processes of heavy-metals. Meanwhile, deciphering resistant mechanisms and constructing tolerant chassis towards heavy metals could greatly contribute to the successful application of the cyanobacteria-based bioremediation in the future. In this review, first we summarized recent application of cyanobacteria in heavy metals bioremediation using either live or dead cells. Second, resistant mechanisms and strategies for enhancing cyanobacterial bioremediation of heavy metals were discussed. Finally, potential challenges and perspectives for improving bioremediation of heavy metals by cyanobacteria were presented.
Related Concept Videos
Bioremediation
Bacterial Phylum Cyanobacteria
Anoxygenic Phototrophic Bacteria
Anoxygenic Photosynthesis
Microbial Nutrition
Metabolism of Chemolithotrophs

