The nitrite bottleneck revisited: exploring the potential of phage-mediated microbial regulation for advancing novel nitrogen removal strategies
The “Nitrite Bottleneck” in nitrite-based nitrogen removal processes undermines the efficiency of partial nitrification-anammox (PN/A). This perspective proposes leveraging bacteriophages for precise microbial community engineering in nitrogen removal: selectively lysing nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB) via targeted lysis, enhancing ammonia-oxidizing and anammox bacteria through auxiliary metabolic genes, and facilitating nutrient redistribution via the viral shunt. We explore the feasibility, technical challenges, and potential biosafety risks, offering a roadmap for phage-based advancements in wastewater treatment systems.
Authors
- Aamer Ali Shah (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7454-4105)
- Cancan Jiang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9064-5990)
- Shuai Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9928-5437)
- Xuliang Zhuang
- Xu Wang
- Jiang Peng
Institutions
- Quaid-i-Azam University (PK)
- Yunnan University (CN)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research (CN)
- Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences (CN)
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- npj Clean Water
- Published
- 2025-12-24
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41545-025-00543-6
- Primary Topic
- Wastewater Treatment and Nitrogen Removal
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Peking University
- National Science and Technology Major Project