A multi-omics study of polystyrene degradation.
Zhang S, Zhang C, Zhou Y, Gu W, Wang R
Soil Health
Polystyrene pots, seedling trays, and foam packaging shed microplastic particles into garden beds every season, and bacteria already living in healthy compost may be our most promising tool for reversing that slow accumulation.
Researchers found a soil bacterium that can slowly eat polystyrene — the same foam plastic used in plant pots, seedling trays, and packing peanuts. It attacks the plastic using two different chemical routes at once: one to crack open the rigid ring part of the molecule, and another to chew through the carbon chains, eventually turning the fragments into ordinary cellular fuel. Over two months it consumed about 4.5% of the plastic by weight, which is encouraging evidence that living soil might one day clean up plastic contamination on its own.
Key Findings
Stenotrophomonas sp. reduced polystyrene mass by 4.53% over 60 days, with measurable surface erosion, lower molecular weight, and new oxygen-containing chemical groups forming on the plastic surface.
Polystyrene breakdown follows two parallel metabolic routes simultaneously: benzoate-pathway ring-opening for the aromatic portion and β-oxidation for the aliphatic side chains, with breakdown products fed into central carbon metabolism.
The bacterium mounts a coordinated molecular stress response during degradation, upregulating ribosomal machinery for rapid enzyme production, activating oxidative phosphorylation for energy, and boosting DNA repair systems to handle the oxidative damage that comes with breaking down such an inert material.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists mapped exactly how a soil bacterium breaks down polystyrene plastic, finding it simultaneously activates dozens of genes to dismantle both the rigid ring structure and the carbon side chains of the plastic molecule. The bacterium reduced polystyrene mass by 4.53% over 60 days — a modest but real demonstration that microbial life can biologically degrade one of the most persistent plastics in the environment.
Abstract Preview
Polystyrene (PS) is highly persistent in the environment, presenting a significant ecological challenge, while microbial degradation offers a potential green solution. However, the molecular mechan...
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