Microalgal—bacterial interactions: Research trend and updated review

Abstract

Microalgae are being recognized as the key contributor to sustainability in many sectors, starting from energy up to food industries. The microorganism has also been utilized as environmental remediator, capable of converting organic compounds into economically valuable biomass. To optimize the use of microalgae in these sectors, researchers have explored various approaches, of which is the use of bacteria. The interaction between bacteria and microalgae can potentially be harnessed, but its complexity requires extensive research. Herein, we present the bibliometric analysis on microalgal-bacterial interactions. The metadata of published literature was collected through Scopus database on August 4, 2023. The downloaded.csv file was uploaded to VOSViewer and biblioshiny for network visualization. We found that the research has gained a lot of attention from researchers since 2012 with an exponential increase of the publication number. The United States and China are leading the research with a strong collaboration. Based on the research sub-topic clusters, the interaction is mostly studied for wastewater treatment, biomass production, and algal bloom control. Updated reviews on this topic reveal that researchers are now focus on optimizing the efficacy of microalgae-bacteria system, investigating the modes of actions, and identifying challenges in its real-world implementation. The microalgal-bacterial interaction is a promising approach for microalgae utilization in wastewater treatment, biomass production, and algal bloom control.

Keywords

• Microalgae
• Bacteria
• Bibliometric
• Algacidal
• Flocculation