Bacterial Degradation of Persistent Organic Pollutants: From Molecular Mechanisms to Synthetic Biology.

Bacterial POP degradation involves highly modular, evolutionarily dynamic networks with enzymatic promiscuity and complex microbial interactions.

• Why it matters: Understanding these mechanisms is crucial because POPs are persistent, toxic, and environmentally mobile contaminants, and current knowledge gaps hinder effective bioremediation strategies.
• What they did: The study synthesizes recent advances across molecular, genomic, regulatory, and multi-omics levels, highlighting enzyme promiscuity, pathway architectures, and synthetic biology approaches like pathway refactoring and designer consortia.
• The result: Findings suggest that integrating systems-level insights and synthetic biology can expand substrate range, improve pathway control, and enable real-time monitoring, though challenges in stability and biosafety remain.