Abstract

Emerging environmental pollutants, such as pharmaceuticals, personal care products, endocrine disruptors, and industrial chemicals, pose significant risks to ecosystems and human health due to their persistence, bioaccumulation, and toxicity. Traditional methods of pollution control are often inefficient, expensive, or environmentally damaging. Microbiome engineering modifying or optimizing microbial communities for specific functions has emerged as a promising strategy for the bioremediation of these contaminants. This review explores the potential of microbiome engineering in bioremediation, focusing on the mechanisms by which engineered microbial communities degrade or transform emerging pollutants. We discuss advances in microbial consortia design, gene editing technologies, and biotransformation pathways, as well as challenges and future directions for deploying microbiome engineering in realworld environmental cleanup effort