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The nitrite bottleneck revisited: exploring the potential of phage-mediated microbial regulation for advancing novel nitrogen removal strategies


Abstract

The “Nitrite Bottleneck” in nitrite-based nitrogen removal processes undermines the efficiency of partial nitrification-anammox (PN/A). This perspective proposes leveraging bacteriophages for precise microbial community engineering in nitrogen removal: selectively lysing nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB) via targeted lysis, enhancing ammonia-oxidizing and anammox bacteria through auxiliary metabolic genes, and facilitating nutrient redistribution via the viral shunt. We explore the feasibility, technical challenges, and potential biosafety risks, offering a roadmap for phage-based advancements in wastewater treatment systems.

Data availability

No datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the contributors for their valuable support. We would like to express our gratitude to Dr. Linchen He from Peking University for his valuable contributions in revising and enhancing the language throughout the manuscript. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 42407161, 42230411, and 42177099) and the Jing-Jin-Ji Regional Integrated Environmental Improvement-National Science and Technology Major Project (Grant No. 2025ZD1204700).

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J.P. conceived and designed the study, led the writing of the original draft, and was responsible for visualization. C.J. and X.L. defined the key information and provided funding support. X.W. contributed to the development of the content structure and assisted in reviewing and editing. S.X., A.S., and X.Z. supervised the study. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Cancan Jiang or Xuliang Zhuang.

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Peng, J., Jiang, C., Wang, X. et al. The nitrite bottleneck revisited: exploring the potential of phage-mediated microbial regulation for advancing novel nitrogen removal strategies.
npj Clean Water (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41545-025-00543-6

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