Tough plastic-killer bacteria discovered in wastewater by US researchers | Among all plastic waste, PET is particularly problematic due to its durability and resistance to degradation.
Tough plastic-killer bacteria discovered in wastewater by US researchers | Among all plastic waste, PET is particularly problematic due to its durability and resistance to degradation.
From the article: Researchers have long observed that a common family of environmental bacteria, Comamonadacae, grow on plastics littered throughout urban rivers and wastewater systems. But what, exactly, these Comamonas bacteria are doing has remained a mystery.
Now, Northwestern University-led researchers have discovered how cells of a Comamonas bacterium are breaking down plastic for food. First, they chew the plastic into small pieces, called nanoplastics. Then, they secrete a specialized enzyme that breaks down the plastic even further. Finally, the bacteria use a ring of carbon atoms from the plastic as a food source, the researchers found.
The discovery opens new possibilities for developing bacteria-based engineering solutions to help clean up difficult-to-remove plastic waste, which pollutes drinking water and harms wildlife.
“We have systematically shown, for the first time, that a wastewater bacterium can take a starting plastic material, deteriorate it, fragment it, break it down and use it as a source of carbon,” said Northwestern’s Ludmilla Aristilde, who led the study. “It is amazing that this bacterium can perform that entire process, and we identified a key enzyme responsible for breaking down the plastic materials. This could be optimized and exploited to help get rid of plastics in the environment.”
oxero on
It’s crazy how quickly bacteria suddenly learned how to “eat plastic.” It’s fascinating, but also like the article suggests it will be important to monitor how they go about the process, especially the byproducts. If plastic is being broken down smaller and smaller, and isn’t finished, that means they are a huge contributor to microplastics permeating into everything else. Sanitizing water too early or too late might be contributing to the problem in ways we didn’t forsee yet.
Orchid-Analyst-550 on
Good thing PET can be recycled over and over again. Japan has a really good system for recycling PET.
Itchy_Beginning_3769 on
Cool. So what are the chances a bacteria developed for eating plastics could evolve into something that wipes out humans, too?
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From the article: Researchers have long observed that a common family of environmental bacteria, Comamonadacae, grow on plastics littered throughout urban rivers and wastewater systems. But what, exactly, these Comamonas bacteria are doing has remained a mystery.
Now, Northwestern University-led researchers have discovered how cells of a Comamonas bacterium are breaking down plastic for food. First, they chew the plastic into small pieces, called nanoplastics. Then, they secrete a specialized enzyme that breaks down the plastic even further. Finally, the bacteria use a ring of carbon atoms from the plastic as a food source, the researchers found.
The discovery opens new possibilities for developing bacteria-based engineering solutions to help clean up difficult-to-remove plastic waste, which pollutes drinking water and harms wildlife.
The study will be published on Thursday (Oct. 3) in the journal [Environmental Science & Technology](https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.4c06645).
“We have systematically shown, for the first time, that a wastewater bacterium can take a starting plastic material, deteriorate it, fragment it, break it down and use it as a source of carbon,” said Northwestern’s Ludmilla Aristilde, who led the study. “It is amazing that this bacterium can perform that entire process, and we identified a key enzyme responsible for breaking down the plastic materials. This could be optimized and exploited to help get rid of plastics in the environment.”
It’s crazy how quickly bacteria suddenly learned how to “eat plastic.” It’s fascinating, but also like the article suggests it will be important to monitor how they go about the process, especially the byproducts. If plastic is being broken down smaller and smaller, and isn’t finished, that means they are a huge contributor to microplastics permeating into everything else. Sanitizing water too early or too late might be contributing to the problem in ways we didn’t forsee yet.
Good thing PET can be recycled over and over again. Japan has a really good system for recycling PET.
Cool. So what are the chances a bacteria developed for eating plastics could evolve into something that wipes out humans, too?
Earth would be so chuffed.