Cyanobacteria-based bioremediation of environmental contaminants: advances and computational insights

Environmental contaminants pose significant risks to human health, agriculture, climate, and economic stability. In the last two decades, rapid growth in industrial activities has adversely affected the environment by releasing toxic effluents and untreated waste products. These pollutants not only affect the environment but also affect the human health by causing severe chronic diseases. However, to mitigate the challenges of environmental contaminants various traditional physical and chemical approaches have been followed but their high cost and toxic residual products again appear as major challenges. In this regard, for the last few years, microbial-based bioremediation has been frequently employed to mitigate the challenges of environmental contaminants. Utilization of cyanobacteria species is one of the emerging microbial approaches for contamination management. Cyanobacteria are a group of photoautotrophic microorganisms, frequently observed in a broad range of habitats, which makes them an easy resource or chief availability for their application in contamination management. This review paper discusses the recent developments in cyanobacteria-based bioremediation of environmental contaminants. Furthermore, in silico studies have been conducted to examine the nature of pollutants and their management by cyanobacterial strains.