The effects of microplastics (MPs) on soil microbial

The gap

Evidence profile

Sourced from the future work and abstract and future-work section and limitations section of the source papers, classified as general, drawn from work published between 2024 and 2026, spanning 5 journals. Those papers have been cited 203 times in total.

Supporting evidence — 7 representative gaps

• Interactions among Heavy Metals, Microplastics and Pesticides in Soil and Advances in Microbial Remediation (2026) · Journal of Innovation and Development · doi

  microbial influencing This review highlights the complex interactions among heavy metals, microplastics, and pesticides in soil environments. Microplastics play dual roles as both carriers and regulators of pollutant behavior, the migration, transformation, and bioavailability of coexisting remediation contaminants. Meanwhile, technologies offer promising solutions for mitigating composite pollution due to their versatility and sustainability. However, current research mainly focuses on single or binary pollutant systems, and studies on multi-pollutant interactions remain limited. Future research should prioritize: (i) elucidating the mechanisms of multi-pollutant interactions at molecular and microbial community levels; (ii) developing robust microbial consortia capable of functioning under complex environmental stress; and (iii) integrating microbial technologies with other remediation strategies for field-scale applications. Overall, advancing our understanding of composite pollution and developing efficient remediation strategies are 3 essential for ensuring soil health and sustainable agricultural development.

  generalfuture workevidence 5/5
  Keywords: microbial pollutant interactions remediation complex microplastics soil technologies composite pollution multi developing strategies influencing review
• Microbial remediation of recalcitrant pollutants in soil and geo-environmental engineering systems (2026) · Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology · doi

  FIGURE 15 Synthetic biology approaches for enhanced microbial bioremediation of environmental pollutants (Jiménez-Díaz et al., 2022). laboratory studies Recent advances in environmental biotechnology, microbial ecology, synthetic biology, data science, and materials engineering are opening new opportunities to enhance microbial systems for remediation. Future studies will look to increase remediation efficiency, increase the number of contaminants that can be degraded, and increase the monitoring capability, as well as combine biological processes with sustainable engineering solutions. Future research should move beyond proof-ofconcept toward hypothesis-driven field validation. Key research questions include whether engineered long-term stability and microbial consortia can maintain degradation performance under fluctuating environmental conditions, how microbial community composition changes during extended remediation periods, and whether multispecies systems consistently outperform indigenous microbial populations under field conditions. Future validation studies should include pilot-scale and field-scale trials with appropriate untreated controls, long-term monitoring programs, and standardized performance metrics. Monitoring should evaluate not only contaminant removal but also transformation products, mineralization, residual toxicity, contaminant bioavailability, geochemical stability, groundwater plume behavior, and microbial functional activity. The deployment of engineered microorganisms and synthetic biology approaches should be assessments accompanied addressing ecological transfer, persistence of introduced microorganisms, and potential consequences. Multi-omics unintended technologies should be further developed to identify functional genes, metabolic pathways, and microbial interactions that control contaminant degradation under field conditions. Artificial intelligence and machine learning tools may provide practical support for predictive modeling, process optimization, contaminant transport forecasting, and remediation decisionmaking when integrated with environmental monitoring datasets. These technologies are likely to be most effective in complex contaminated sites where multiple contaminants, heterogeneous environmental conditions, and long remediation periods challenge conventional remediation strategies. impacts, horizontal gene comprehensive environmental biosafety by 10.1 Synthetic biology to the (Sayler increase and Ripp, Synthetic biology has become an exciting new area with great promise in environmental remediation. Genetic engineering and metabolic pathway optimization techniques can be used to genetically engineer microorganisms to degrade pollutants that are naturally resistant to degradation. Synthetic biology can be used to introduce novel catabolic pathways, to increase the tolerance of production of enzymes, and microbial 2000). Engineered stress microorganisms can be created to remove specific contaminants, such as chlorinated compounds, pharmaceuticals, and PFAS. Synthetic gene circuits also have the potential to enhance environmental sensing and pollutant-responsive degradation systems. While significant advances have been made, practical use of engineered microorganisms for environmental applications also has to take into account biosafety issues and regulatory hurdles (Das et al., 2025). Figure 15 illustrates the role of synthetic biology in advancing microbial engineered remediation microorganisms, metabolic pathway optimization, and synthetic microbial consortia. These strategies improve pollutant detection, tolerance, providing degradation efficiency, and microbial promising recalcitrant environmental contaminants. remediation of solutions through the for 10.2 Engineered microbial consortia Complex microbial communities may be responsible for natural remediation processes instead of individual species. Thus, the design of engineered microbial consortia is currently under intense research. Engineered consortia are groupings of microorganisms that have complementary metabolic functions to provide for more complete degradation of many complex contaminant mixtures (Renganathan et al., 2025). These systems can help make the most of substrate oxidation, boost tolerance full mineralisation of pollutants by following metabolic pathways.

  generalfuture workevidence 5/5
  Keywords: microbial environmental remediation synthetic engineered biology microorganisms degradation increase consortia contaminant metabolic systems contaminants monitoring
• Soil Matrix Modulates Polystyrene Microplastic Toxicity to Eisenia fetida: From Acute Lethality to Oxidative Genotoxicity (2026) · Current Issues in Molecular Biology · doi

  Microplastic (MP) contamination in soils has raised widespread concern, yet the extent to which soil matrices regulate MP toxicity remains insufficiently characterized.

  generalabstractevidence 5/5
  Keywords: microplastic contamination soils raised widespread concern extent soil matrices regulate toxicity remains insufficiently characterized
• RETRACTED: Adverse impacts of microplastics on soil physicochemical properties and crop health in agricultural systems (2024) · Journal of Hazardous Materials Advances · cited 37× · doi

  This review not only synthesizes current knowledge but also identifies significant knowledge gaps in understanding how microplastics interact with soil properties, microbial communities, and agricultural crops.

  generalabstractevidence 4/5
  Keywords: knowledge review synthesizes current identifies significant gaps understanding microplastics interact soil properties microbial communities agricultural
• Interactions among Heavy Metals, Microplastics and Pesticides in Soil and Advances in Microbial Remediation (2026) · Journal of Innovation and Development · doi

  Further research is needed to develop effective and sustainable remediation approaches for composite pollution. Studies should investigate the effects of microplastics on pesticide bioavailability and toxicity. Research should focus on optimizing interactions among different functional microorganisms for microbial remediation.

  generalfuture-work sectionevidence 4/5
  Keywords: further research needed develop effective sustainable remediation approaches
• Interactions among Heavy Metals, Microplastics and Pesticides in Soil and Advances in Microbial Remediation (2026) · Journal of Innovation and Development · doi

  The underlying mechanisms governing the interactions among heavy metals, microplastics, and pesticides remain poorly understood. Research on microbial remediation of heavy metal-microplastic-pesticide composite pollution is still in its early stages. Maintaining microbial stability under complex environmental conditions is a key challenge.

  generallimitations sectionevidence 4/5
  Keywords: underlying mechanisms governing interactions among heavy metals microplastics
• Microplastic diversity increases the abundance of antibiotic resistance genes in soil (2024) · Nature Communications · cited 166× · doi

  The effects of microplastics (MPs) on soil microbial communities and antimicrobial resistance genes are not well understood.

  generalabstractevidence 3/5
  Keywords: effects microplastics soil microbial communities antimicrobial resistance genes well understood

Questions about this gap