Wastewater treatment plants and other remediation facilities serve important roles, both in public health, but also as dynamic research platforms for acquiring useful resources and biomolecules for various applications. An example of this is methanotrophic bacteria within anaerobic digestion processes in wastewater treatment plants. These bacteria are an important microbial source of many products including ectoine, polyhydroxyalkanoates, and methanobactins, which are invaluable to the fields of biotechnology and biomedicine. Here we provide an overview of the methanotrophs' unique metabolism and the biochemical pathways involved in biomolecule formation. We also discuss the potential biomedical applications of these biomolecules through creation of beneficial biocompatible products including vaccines, prosthetics, electronic devices, drug carriers, and heart stents. We highlight the links between molecular biology, public health, and environmental science in the advancement of biomedical research and industrial applications using methanotrophic bacteria in wastewater treatment systems.
Keywords: S-layer; biogas; biomedical applications; ectoine; exopolysaccharide (EPS); methane monooxygenase (MMO); methanobactin; methanotrophs; polyhydroxyalkonate (PHA); polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB); single cell protein (SCP); wastewater treatment.