Press releasePlastic-eating bacteria – there are more and more diverse than previously thought
8 February 2018
Plastics such as PET (polyethylene terephalate), which are made up of bottles or packaging, are only recycled to a small extent and most of them are released into the environment. There it is degraded only very slowly: Assumed it takes up to 450 years, until a plastic bottle has dissolved. In 2016, a bacterium was first discovered that attacks and decomposes plastic. Scientists around Prof. Wolfgang Streit from the Biozentrum Klein Flottbek at the University of Hamburg have now found out that there are far more and more diverse plastic-eating bacteria than previously thought. The research team has just published its findings in the latest issue of the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.
The microbiologists used global databases to analyze the genetic material of bacteria from different habitats on land and in water. They found that many bacteria can be responsible for the degradation of PET and that the bacteria involved are more diverse in their phylogenetic development than previously thought. The research team investigated the degradation products that are formed in the bacteria during degradation of the plastic and the enzymes involved. They were able to find several hundred novel enzymes, the so-called PET hydrolases. "We were surprised that the bacterial species involved are much more diverse than previously thought. Our characterization of four selected PET hydrolases now enhances the understanding of the degradation mechanisms. However, it was confirmed that the degradation of PET by the bacteria is in principle very slow," says Prof. Streit.
Original work:
New insights into the function and global distribution of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) degrading bacteria and enzymes in marine and terrestrial metagenomes
Dominik Danso, Christel Schmeisser, Jennifer Chow, Wolfgang Zimmermann, Ren Wei, Christian Leggewie, Xiangzhen Li, Terry Hazen and Wolfgang R. Streit
Appl. Environ. Microbiol. AEM.02773-17; Accepted manuscript posted online 2 February 2018, doi:10.1128/AEM.02773-17, http://aem.asm.org/content/early/2018/01/29/AEM.02773-17
For questions:
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Streit
Universität Hamburg
Mikrobiologie & Biotechnologie
Tel.: +49 40 42816-463/-461
E-Mail: wolfgang.streit@uni-hamburg