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. 2022 Jun 27;377(1857):20210395. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2021.0395

Figure 3.

Figure 3.

Biological agents for environmental bioremediation. Pathways for mitigating and even reversing the effect of emissions on different types of ecosystems can be channelled to the target sites in various biological formats. The simplest is having the trait(s) encoded in the genome of a monoclonal strain (a) that can be delivered to the location of interest. Alternatively, the same and more of such traits can be embodied in an engineered consortium (b) with a predefined division of labour and positive negative interactions between components of the partnership designed for the sake of robustness. Yet, as discussed in the text, colonization resistance may make direct inoculation inefficient, in which case propagation of DNA (c) with sequence features for expression of the cognate genes in a variety of hosts through HGT can be considered. Finally, a complete, self-sustained bioremediation unit (d) can be assembled by combining components recruited from various biological domains and endowed with a predefined relational logic and niche-creating abilities—what has been called Terraforning motifs.