Soil bacterium deploys enzyme toolkit to digest polyethylene plastic bags
Zampolli J, Salvadori M, Vincenti V, Lasagni M, Di Gennaro P
Plastic Biodegradation
Plastic mulch film, poly bags, and garden twine that end up in your soil don't just sit there passively, and identifying bacteria that actively digest polyethylene brings bioremediation strategies one step closer to the conditions of an actual garden bed or compost pile.
Scientists identified a bacterium that can slowly eat away at the same plastic used in grocery bags and plastic wrap. They found that drip-feeding the bacterium small amounts of plastic over time works better than giving it one big dose, because it keeps the microbe's plastic-digesting enzymes switched on longer. Certain waxy compounds naturally present on the plastic's surface seem to act like a chemical signal that tells the bacterium to ramp up its digestion machinery.
Key Findings
Fed-batch plastic dosing (0.4% continuous) triggered broader and earlier activation of oxidative genes than a single 1% fixed dose, including 7 laccase-like enzymes, alkane monooxygenase, benzoate dioxygenase, and cytochrome P450 hydroxylase.
Long-chain alkane tetracosane (C24), a surface compound on untreated polyethylene, strongly induced oxidative enzyme expression, suggesting it functions as a metabolic trigger during plastic degradation.
Extracellular laccase activity was detected under all tested conditions, but was driven more by the physiological state of the bacterial inoculum than by plastic concentration or UV pretreatment.
chevron_right Technical Summary
A soil bacterium called Rhodococcus opacus R7 can break down low-density polyethylene plastic by deploying a suite of oxidative enzymes, and researchers have now mapped which genes switch on during that process. How you feed the bacterium plastic turns out to matter as much as whether it's present at all, with a slow, continuous feeding strategy triggering a broader and earlier enzyme response than a single large dose.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Genome-to-function integrated exploration of polyethylene biodegradation by Rhodococcus opacus R7.
Polyethylene (PE) is the most widely produced polyolefin and represents a major contributor to plastic waste, largely due to its chemical stability and resistance to biological degradation. PE biod...
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