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Microbes can capture carbon and degrade plastic — why aren’t we using them more?

Interventions involving bacteria or fungi could help to sequester greenhouse gases, create more sustainable products and clean up pollution — in ways that are economically viable and safe.
By
  1. Rino Rappuoli

    1. Rino Rappuoli is scientific director at the Fondazione Biotecnopolo di Siena, Siena, Italy.

  2. Nguyen K. Nguyen

    1. Nguyen K. Nguyen is director of the American Academy of Microbiology at the American Society for Microbiology, Washington DC, USA.

  3. David E. Bloom

    1. David E. Bloom is professor of economics and demography at the Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

  4. Charles Brooke

    1. Charles Brooke is program lead for livestock enteric methane mitigation at Spark Climate Solutions, Covina, California, USA.

  5. Rachel M. Burckhardt

    1. Rachel M. Burckhardt is program officer at the American Academy of Microbiology, American Society for Microbiology, Washington DC, USA.

  6. Alan D. Dangour

    1. Alan D. Dangour is director of the Climate & Health Programme, Wellcome, London, UK.

  7. Dilfuza Egamberdieva

    1. Dilfuza Egamberdieva is head of the Biosafety Research and Food Safety Lab at the Institute of Fundamental and Applied Research, National Research University TIIAME, Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

  8. Gigi K. Gronvall

    1. Gigi K. Gronvall is professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.

  9. Trevor D. Lawley

    1. Trevor D. Lawley is group leader at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, UK.

  10. Jay T. Lennon

    1. Jay T. Lennon is professor in the Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA.

  11. Ryan Morhard

    1. Ryan Morhard is adjunct professor at Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, Washington DC, USA.

  12. Aindrila Mukhopadhyay

    1. Aindrila Mukhopadhyay is senior scientist in the Biological Systems and Engineering Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, USA.

  13. Raquel Peixoto

    1. Raquel Peixoto is professor in the Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia.

  14. Pamela A. Silver

    1. Pamela A. Silver is professor in the Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

  15. Lisa Y. Stein

    1. Lisa Y. Stein is professor and Canada Research Chair in Climate Change Microbiology in the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

A farmer sprays bio-decomposer solution on a harvested field to prevent rice stubble burning in India.

A farmer in India sprays a harvested paddy field with a solution of fungi that breaks down plant stems, avoiding the need for stubble burning. Credit: Naveen Sharma/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty

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Microorganisms have shaped Earth for almost four billion years. At least a trillion microbial species sustain the biosphere — for instance, by producing oxygen or sequestering carbon1. Microbes thrive in extreme environments and use diverse energy sources, from methane to metals. And they can catalyse complex reactions under ambient temperatures and pressures with remarkable efficiency.

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Nature 639, 864-866 (2025)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-00875-w

The views expressed in this article are the authors’ own, not those of the institutions, affiliations or agencies that fund their research.

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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