Engineered Plant-Microbe Symbiosis Turns Wastewater Metals Into Photosynthetic Biohybrids
· newswise.com · popularity 21/100 · 0 similar stories today · Materials Science & Nanotechnology (Discovery & Research)
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Summary
<img src="https://www.newswise.com/legacy/image.php?image=https://media.newswise.com/pio/articles/857879/6ae9e897cdf64_Snipaste_2026-11-03_21-53-36_857879.jpg&width=100&height=150" alt="Newswise image" />A new plant-microbe strategy could change how wastewater heavy-metal pollutants are managed: instead of merely capturing toxic cadmium and lead, it converts them into light-harvesting semiconductor nanoparticles on living bacteria. The system pairs water lettuce with an engineered, fast-growing aerobic bacterium that colonizes roots, uses plant exudates as fuel, and performs sulfate reduction in the oxygen-rich rhizosphere. This produces hydrogen sulfide that precipitates metals as cadmium sulfide and lead sulfide particles anchored to bacterial cells. The resulting semiconductor-cell biohybrids show photoelectric activity, while bacterial auxin helps offset metal stress in the plant. The work links remediation with material recovery and offers a route to recover value from pollutants rather than landfilling contaminated plant biomass.
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