Actinobacteria mediated bioremediation of pesticide and heavy metal contaminated soils using omics and emerging strategies

Abstract

Environmental pollution caused by heavy metals and pesticides poses a major threat to agricultural sustainability and ecosystem health. Rapid industrialization and intensive farming practices have accelerated the accumulation of these persistent contaminants in soil, leading to reduced soil fertility, crop productivity, and potential risks to human health through the food chain. Bioremediation has emerged as an eco-friendly and sustainable strategy for detoxifying polluted environments. Among various microbial groups, Actinobacteria have gained significant attention due to their metabolic versatility, stress tolerance, and ability to degrade complex organic pollutants while transforming or immobilizing toxic metals. Genera such as Arthrobacter, Rhodococcus, Streptomyces, Nocardia, and Microbacterium demonstrate strong potential for pesticide degradation and heavy metal remediation in agricultural soils. Recent advances integrating plant microbe interactions, biosurfactant production, nanoparticle mediated remediation, and multi omics technologies have further strengthened the role of Actinobacteria in environmental cleanup. Despite increasing studies on microbial bioremediation, a comprehensive understanding integrating Actinobacteria mediated remediation of both pesticides and heavy metals with emerging omics, nanotechnology, immobilization, and CRISPR based approaches remains limited. In addition, major knowledge gaps still exist regarding field scale applications, multi contaminant remediation efficiency, ecological safety, and long-term stability of engineered or bioaugmented systems. This review uniquely integrates conventional and advanced Actinobacteria based bioremediation strategies while critically discussing mechanistic pathways, recent technological developments, current limitations, and future prospects for sustainable remediation of contaminated agro ecosystems. These emerging approaches highlight the potential of Actinobacteria based strategies as innovative and sustainable solutions for restoring contaminated agro ecosystems.