Meet "The Plastic-eating Bacteria"
Plastic is not something most bacteria would want as a meal. But, this one right here is not your typical microbe. It's a fascinating bacteria famed for it's appetite for plastic--Ideonella sakaiensis.
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| Meet "The Plastic-eating Bacteria" - Healthbiztips |
@healthbiztips by Arlene Gentallan
Each year, millions of tonnes of plastic find their way into the ocean. In fact, the oceans hold billions of pounds of plastics. When you reflect on these staggering numbers, you'll realize that solving Earth's plastic pollution is almost impossible. Turning on plastic-eating bacteria can revolutionize the way we dispose plastics.
Ideonella sakaiensisi 201-F6 is first discovered in Sakai, Japan in 2016. It releases enzymes which speeds up the breakdown of PET (polyethylene terephthalate), a type of plastic commonly used in water bottles. This bacteria survive using plastic as it's main energy source, and in the process, turns the harmful PET plastic into environmentally friendly by-products.
Ideonella sakaiensisi 201-F6 releases two enzymes known as PETase and MHETase which degrade PET plastic into environmentally-friendly by-products.
Could these germs be the solution to the massive plastic pollution that terrorize our lands and seas?
Plastic is close to Forever
Nothing lasts Forever, but plastic could be the closest thing.
Let's take a look into one of the most common disposable plastic product we commonly encounter--plastic bottles. Did you know that a plastic water bottle have an average lifespan of 450 years. Meaning to say, that person who negligently thrown away a plastic bottle on the river has just dumped Earth with a garbage that can outlive his grandchildren's generations. Multiply the number by millions of people and you get a unfathomable plastic problem.
Bacteria eating plastic Ideonella sakaiensisi can surprisingly speed up the process of degrading PET plastic into just a matter of days. PET plastic is the most common polyester plastic in the world.
The ability of bacteria to produce PETase enzyme to break down PET plastic to harness it as their energy source is believed to be a recent evolutionary feat that highlights just how extraordinary bacteria can adapt to their environment to survive and thrive.
Making things even better, scientists working on this plastic-eating bacteria have accidentally introduced a mutation which enhances the bacteria's ability of digest PET plastic.
Microplastics
As time goes by, plastics in the ocean gets degraded into microplastics (less than 5mm), but being microscopic doesn't mean these things are harmless. Microplastics hunts our seas and even deep oceans. It has become a worldwide infestation to the extent that anyone eating seafood should expect they are also consuming microscopic plastics.
Resources:
S. Yoshida, et al. (2016). A bacterium that degrades and assimilates poly(ethylene terephthalate). Science. doi: 10.1126/science.aad6359.
Austin, Harry P et al. “Characterization and engineering of a plastic-degrading aromatic polyesterase.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America vol. 115,19 (2018): E4350-E4357. doi:10.1073/pnas.1718804115
Meet "The Plastic-eating Bacteria" - Healthbiztips
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