Scientists have discovered microorganisms in the Arctic and Alps that can decompose many types of plastic. An article about this was published in Frontiers in Microbiology.
Plastic pollution is one of the most important problems of our age. Most of its species practically do not decompose and do not float in water (or lie in the ground) for tens and hundreds of years. Scientists have been able to detect a few microorganisms that can decompose plastic, but their enzymes, as a rule, begin to work at temperatures above 30 degrees.
Joel Ruti and colleagues took 19 bacterial species and 15 fungal samples growing on free or annual plastic in Greenland, Svalbard and Switzerland. The scientists allowed the microbes to grow as cultures of a single strain in the lab at 15 degrees Celsius in the dark. Identification using molecular methods showed that the bacterial strains belonged to 13 genus types. actinobacteria And proteobacteriaand mushrooms – up to 10 species ascomycota And mucoromycota.
The microorganisms were then tested for their ability to degrade non-biodegradable polyethylene and biodegradable polyester-polyurethane as well as polybutylene adipate terephthalate (PBAT) and polylactic acid (PLA) samples.
None of the strains “digest” polyethylene even after 126 days of growth on it. However, 19 (56%) strains, 11 fungi and 8 bacteria, were able to “digest” polyurethane at 15 degrees, and 14 fungi and 3 bacteria were able to digest PBAT and PLA plastics. The ability of these microorganisms to reduce polymers to shorter molecules was confirmed by MRI.
Mushrooms of the genus coped with the task best neodevriesia And lachnellula: they were able to “digest” all plastics except polyethylene. The authors suggest that the ability to digest plastic evolved as a side effect of the degradation of plant polymers. In the future, scientists hope to identify plastic-degrading enzymes and mass-produce them for waste disposal.
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