Microbial Consortia for Sustainable Bioremediation of Emerging Environmental Pollutants in Nigeria: Current Advances, Challenges, and Future Prospects

Emerging environmental pollutants (EEPs), including petroleum hydrocarbons, pharmaceutical residues, pesticides, synthetic dyes, heavy metals, microplastics, and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), pose escalating threats to ecosystems and human health, particularly in developing countries where rapid industrialization, urbanization, and inadequate waste management intensify environmental contamination. Conventional remediation technologies are often costly, energy-intensive, and inefficient for treating complex mixed-pollutant systems. Consequently, microbial consortium-based bioremediation has emerged as a sustainable alternative, exploiting complementary metabolic pathways, cross-feeding, and metabolic division of labour to achieve more efficient contaminant degradation than single-strain systems. This review critically synthesizes recent advances in microbial consortium-based bioremediation, examining ecological mechanisms, synthetic biology, immobilization technologies, and artificial intelligence, and applications for the remediation of petroleum hydrocarbons, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, synthetic dyes, heavy metals, microplastics, and PFAS. Particular emphasis is placed on Nigeria, where indigenous microbial consortia have demonstrated considerable potential for remediating heavily contaminated environments, although applications remain largely confined to laboratory and pilot-scale studies. Unlike previous reviews that focus on individual contaminants or remediation technologies, this review integrates advances in microbial consortium engineering with omics-driven approaches, artificial intelligence-assisted design, and field implementation within the context of Nigeria's multi-pollutant contamination challenges. These priorities are essential for advancing scalable, sustainable, and field-deployable bioremediation strategies in Nigeria and other developing countries.