'Plastic-eating' bacteria discovered by Indian scientists

Researchers have discovered two strains of 'plastic-eating' bacteria from wetlands of Greater ida, an vance that may le to eco-friendly alternative clean-up methods for plastic waste worldwide. bacterial strains discovered by researchers at Shiv Nar University in Greater ida, Uttar Presh, have potential to decompose polystyrene a key component in Single-Use Plastic (SUP) items such as disposable cups, cutlery, toys, packaging materials etc.

bacterial species namely Exiguobacterium sibiricum strain DR11 and Exiguobacterium undae strain DR14 were isolated from wetlands joining university.

Polystyrene is quite resistant to degration due to its high molecular weight and long-chain polymer structure. This is reason for ir persistence in environment, according to study published in journal Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) vances. exponential production and consumption of polystyrene in various sectors has presented a great environment risk and raised problem of waste manment, researchers ted.

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"Our data support fact that strains of extremophile bacterium Exiguobacterium are capable of degring polystyrene and can be furr used to mitigate environmental pollution caused by plastics," Richa Priyarshini, Associate Professor at Shiv Nar University, Greater ida, told PTI.

"Wetlands are one of richest habitats of microbial diversity but are relatively unexplored. Hence, se ecosystems are ideal grounds for isolating bacteria with vel biotechlogical applications," said Priyarshini who discovered bacteria strains along with her team at Department of Life Sciences, School of Natural Sciences.

According to industry estimates, India consumes about 16.5 million metric tonnes of plastic annually. All India Plastic Manufacturers Association (AIPMA) estimates that plastic industry produces about 14 million metric tonnes of polystyrene, which is n-biodegrable.

This effects both terrestrial and marine life, e.g. a plastic fork  can take up to 450 years or more to decompose, researchers ted. In universe of plastic items used daily, SUP constitutes about a fifth in volume, y said. finding assumes significance in India given recent anuncement by Prime Minister to eliminate SUP by 2022. research team identified that upon coming into contact with plastic (polystyrene), two isolated bacteria strains use it as a carbon source, and create biofilms.

This alters physical properties of polystyrene, and initiates a process of natural degration with release of hydrolysing enzymes to break polymer chains. "Biodegration is a process by which microbial organisms mainly bacteria and fungi transform or degre chemicals introduced into environment," Priyarshini said.

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team is currently trying to evaluate metabolic processes of se strains for utilisation in environmental bioremediation.

"What started as a scientific exploration of wetland in our campus has led to this significant discovery of plastic-eating bacteria," said  Rupamanjari Ghosh, Vice-Chancellor, Shiv Nar University.

"This is a dream solution of breaking plastic in a natural process and making it biodegrable," Ghosh said. "We started out by just exploring area to get a sense of bacterial species prevalent in se areas, but ended up isolating numerous bacterial species with unique and useful properties," ded Priyarshini.

With new bacterial species being discovered with plastic biodegration ability, she ted that vel enzymes and new potential metabolic pathways can be discovered which could help in bioremediation in future. researchers ted that both Exiguobacterium strains were able to establish biofilms on polystyrenes surfaces. Biofilms are an assembl of bacterial cells, which grow as communities, reaching to very high cell densities. This les to more targeted and localised action of polymer degring enzymes, researchers said.

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"Polystyrene is quite recalcitrant to degration and requires some form of pre-treatment like chemical, rmal, photo-oxidation etc prior to biodegration," said Priyarshini.

Both DR11 and DR14 strains were able to t only form biofilm on n-treated polystyrene but were also found capable of degring unmodified plastic, researchers said.

"Human dependence on plastic material has increased substantially over years, which has led to huge amount of plastic accumulation in environment leing to verse effects on ecosystem," Priyarshini said.

She ted that more sustainable methods for plastic degration are required. researchers te that use of both indigeus and genetically modified bacteria could le to eco-friendly alternative clean-up methods for plastic waste. Furr research should be directed towards making se process faster, sustainable and cost-effective, y said.

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