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Norwegian Soils and Waters Contain Mesophilic, Plastic-Degrading Bacteria

Plastic pollution has become one of the most critical environmental issues, as rapidly increasing production, compounded by persistence of plastic wastes in the environment, are outpacing efforts to keep ecosystems plastic-free. A switch to plastics more amenable to microbial attack is one of severa...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Charnock, Colin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7823905/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33401570
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms9010094
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author Charnock, Colin
author_facet Charnock, Colin
author_sort Charnock, Colin
collection PubMed
description Plastic pollution has become one of the most critical environmental issues, as rapidly increasing production, compounded by persistence of plastic wastes in the environment, are outpacing efforts to keep ecosystems plastic-free. A switch to plastics more amenable to microbial attack is one of several possible responses. Against this background, the current study describes the isolation, enumeration and polyphasic characterization of plastic-degrading bacteria present in Norwegian terrestrial and aquatic habits. It shows that these bacteria are present in relatively high numbers, and that plastic-degrading capabilities are found in several taxa, most especially Streptomyces. Some isolates wereable to degrade several plastics. Notably, a Rhodococcus sp. and a Streptomyces sp. degraded, respectively, four and six of the eight plastics investigated and a number of other polymers relevant for plastic blends. The paper also has a methodological aspect, presenting various approaches for assaying plastic-degrading properties and a PCR/sequencing-based approach for the identification of potential polyethylene terephthalate-degrading genes. A candidate gene was detected in several Streptomyces isolates. The study shows that Norwegian environments are a rich source of bacteria with the ability to degrade bioplastics possibly representing a natural remediation capacity, as well as a potential source of useful enzymes.
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spelling pubmed-78239052021-01-24 Norwegian Soils and Waters Contain Mesophilic, Plastic-Degrading Bacteria Charnock, Colin Microorganisms Article Plastic pollution has become one of the most critical environmental issues, as rapidly increasing production, compounded by persistence of plastic wastes in the environment, are outpacing efforts to keep ecosystems plastic-free. A switch to plastics more amenable to microbial attack is one of several possible responses. Against this background, the current study describes the isolation, enumeration and polyphasic characterization of plastic-degrading bacteria present in Norwegian terrestrial and aquatic habits. It shows that these bacteria are present in relatively high numbers, and that plastic-degrading capabilities are found in several taxa, most especially Streptomyces. Some isolates wereable to degrade several plastics. Notably, a Rhodococcus sp. and a Streptomyces sp. degraded, respectively, four and six of the eight plastics investigated and a number of other polymers relevant for plastic blends. The paper also has a methodological aspect, presenting various approaches for assaying plastic-degrading properties and a PCR/sequencing-based approach for the identification of potential polyethylene terephthalate-degrading genes. A candidate gene was detected in several Streptomyces isolates. The study shows that Norwegian environments are a rich source of bacteria with the ability to degrade bioplastics possibly representing a natural remediation capacity, as well as a potential source of useful enzymes. MDPI 2021-01-03 /pmc/articles/PMC7823905/ /pubmed/33401570 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms9010094 Text en © 2021 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Charnock, Colin
Norwegian Soils and Waters Contain Mesophilic, Plastic-Degrading Bacteria
title Norwegian Soils and Waters Contain Mesophilic, Plastic-Degrading Bacteria
title_full Norwegian Soils and Waters Contain Mesophilic, Plastic-Degrading Bacteria
title_fullStr Norwegian Soils and Waters Contain Mesophilic, Plastic-Degrading Bacteria
title_full_unstemmed Norwegian Soils and Waters Contain Mesophilic, Plastic-Degrading Bacteria
title_short Norwegian Soils and Waters Contain Mesophilic, Plastic-Degrading Bacteria
title_sort norwegian soils and waters contain mesophilic, plastic-degrading bacteria
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7823905/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33401570
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms9010094
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