Microbial involvement in iodine cycle: mechanisms and potential applications

Eva Duborská; Hana Vojtková; Michaela Matulová; Martin Šeda; Peter Matúš

doi:10.3389/fbioe.2023.1279270

Microbial involvement in iodine cycle: mechanisms and potential applications

Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2023 Oct 30:11:1279270. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2023.1279270. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Eva Duborská¹, Hana Vojtková², Michaela Matulová^{1

3}, Martin Šeda⁴, Peter Matúš¹

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Natural Sciences, Institute of Laboratory Research on Geomaterials, Comenius University in Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovakia.
² Department of Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Mining and Geology, VŠB-Technical University of Ostrava, Ostrava, Czechia.
³ Radioactive Waste Repository Authority (SÚRAO), Praha, Czechia.
⁴ Department of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Agriculture and Technology, University of South Bohemia, České Budějovice, Czechia.

Abstract

Stable iodine isotopes are essential for humans as they are necessary for producing thyroid gland hormones. However, there are hazardous radioactive iodine isotopes that are emitted into the environment through radioactive waste generated by nuclear power plants, nuclear weapon tests, and medical practice. Due to the biophilic character of iodine radionuclides and their enormous biomagnification potential, their elimination from contaminated environments is essential to prevent the spread of radioactive pollution in ecosystems. Since microorganisms play a vital role in controlling iodine cycling and fate in the environment, they also can be efficiently utilized in solving the issue of contamination spread. Thus, this paper summarizes all known on microbial processes that are involved in iodine transformation to highlight their prospects in remediation of the sites contaminated with radioactive iodine isotopes.

Keywords: biomethylation; biooxidation; bioreduction; bioremediation; iodine.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work has been financially supported by the Scientific Grant Agency of the Ministry of Education of the Slovak Republic and the Slovak Academy of Sciences under the contracts VEGA No. 1/0139/22 and Project for Specific University Research (SGS) No. SP2023/4 by the Faculty of Mining and Geology of VŠB—Technical University of Ostrava.