Research progress on microbial degradation of nicotine

ZENG Chang; LIU Lulu; WANG Zewei; ZHU Chun; XU Yadong; SU Erzheng; WU Rong

doi:10.12187/2026.01.010

Abstract：Nicotine is the primary alkaloid in tobacco and its processing waste,featuring strong environmental persistence and high biotoxicity.Its emission poses potential hazards to the ecological environment and human health,rendering nicotine degradation a critical link in the green development of the tobacco industry and tobacco processing waste treatment.Compared with agricultural regulation measures,physical and chemical methods—which have limitations in energy consumption,cost,and aroma quality,microbial degradation has attracted considerable attention due to its high efficiency,specificity,and environmental benignity.This paper systematically summarizes the physicochemical properties of nicotine,treatment methods,as well as the main microbial groups for nicotine degradation,their degradation characteristics,and metabolic pathways.Genera such as Arthrobacter and Pseudomonas are currently the most extensively studied nicotine-degrading microorganisms,and they primarily convert nicotine into small-molecular-weight metabolites that can enter the tricarboxylic acid cycle via the pyridine pathway,pyrrolidine pathway,and VPP pathway,with key degrading enzymes playing a central role in these metabolic pathways.Additionally,this paper outlines the application prospects of microbial degradation of nicotine in fields including bioremediation of tobacco waste,tobacco processing and manufacturing,and biopharmaceuticals.Future research will address issues such as the poor environmental adaptability and unstable degradation efficiency of strains,and will focus on developing customized strains,constructing synthetic microbial communities,conducting multi-omics analysis,and optimizing metabolic processes to promote the industrialization of microbial nicotine degradation technology.