Organohalide respiration: retrospective and perspective through bibliometrics

Hengyi Liao; Xuhao Wang; Xin Wang; Manman Zhang; Yiji Zhang; Siqi Huang; Hongyan Wang; Huijuan Jin; Jingjing Wang; Xiuying Li; Jun Yan; Torsten Schubert; Frank E Löffler; Yi Yang

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2024.1490849

Organohalide respiration: retrospective and perspective through bibliometrics

Front Microbiol. 2024 Dec 24:15:1490849. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1490849. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Hengyi Liao^{1

2}, Xuhao Wang^{1

2}, Xin Wang^{1

2}, Manman Zhang³, Yiji Zhang^{1

2}, Siqi Huang^{1

2}, Hongyan Wang^{1

2}, Huijuan Jin¹, Jingjing Wang¹, Xiuying Li¹, Jun Yan¹, Torsten Schubert⁴, Frank E Löffler^{5

6

7

8}, Yi Yang^{1

9}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Pollution Ecology and Environmental Engineering, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, Liaoning, China.
² University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
³ Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang, Liaoning, China.
⁴ Viral Ecology and Omics, Institute of Biodiversity, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany.
⁵ Department of Biochemistry & Cellular and Molecular Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Knoxville, TN, United States.
⁶ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Knoxville, TN, United States.
⁷ Department of Microbiology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Knoxville, TN, United States.
⁸ Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Knoxville, TN, United States.
⁹ CAS Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Silviculture, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, Liaoning, China.

Abstract

Organohalide-respiring bacteria (OHRB) play a pivotal role in the transformation of organohalogens in diverse environments. This bibliometric analysis provides a timely overview of OHRB research trends and identifies knowledge gaps. Publication numbers have steadily increased since the process was discovered in 1982, with fluctuations in total citations and average citations per publication. The past decade witnessed a peak in publications, underscoring heightened research activity and extensive collaboration. Thematic analysis identified two primary research foci: mechanistic exploration of OHRB and their interplay with environmental factors. Future research should prioritize elucidating the roles OHRB's play in biogeochemical cycling, utilizing synthetic biology tools for enhanced biotransformation, deciphering OHRB's ecological interactions, unraveling their evolutionary pathways, and investigating dehalogenation capabilities in other microorganisms, including archaea. These research directions promise to advance our understanding of microbially-driven organohalide transformations, microbial ecology, and genetic engineering potential, ultimately informing natural organohalide cycling and environmental management strategies.

Keywords: Dehalococcoides; anaerobic bacteria; bibliometric analysis; biodegradation; organohalide-respiring bacteria; reductive dechlorination.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by Intergovernmental International Cooperation on Science and Technology Innovation of National Key Research and Development Project of China (Grant number 2023YFE0122000) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant numbers 42177220 and 42377133). FL acknowledges support from The University Consortium for Field-Focused Groundwater Research.