The detoxification paradox: Rethinking microbial dehalogenation in environmental remediation

Microbial dehalogenation, central to bioremediation, frequently falls short of achieving complete detoxification, often yielding mobile and toxic intermediate compounds—a critical oversight we term as the “detoxification paradox”. This commentary analyzes the mechanistic basis of this paradox and questions the conventional reliance on pollutant removal alone as a performance metric. We advocate for a paradigm shift toward active biological design, outlining a novel, multi-level engineering framework spanning molecular, cellular, and system scales to steer microbial processes toward genuine detoxification and ensure safer environmental remediation.