Health
New way to clean up environmental pollution using phage bioaugmentation
Key Points
The ability of bacteria to remove pollutants from soil, water, mine waste and other environments could be supercharged by a "friendly" compatible virus, according to a study led by Flinders University. The new insights, published in Communications Biology, suggest phage virus bioaugmentation offers a compelling new direction for environmental biotechnology by harnessing the ecological roles of lysogenic phages to enhance microbial function in polluted soils.
The ability of bacteria to remove pollutants from soil, water, mine waste and other environments could be supercharged by a "friendly" compatible virus, according to a study led by Flinders University. The new insights, published in Communications Biology, suggest phage virus bioaugmentation offers a compelling new direction for environmental biotechnology by harnessing the ecological roles of lysogenic phages to enhance microbial function in polluted soils.