Plastic eating bacteria, Exigueobacterium sibircum strain DR11 Exigueobacterium undae, University, college, polystyrene, chemistry.
You know already that plastics are non-degradable. But researchers have discovered two bacteria which could eat plastics.
Researchers have discovered two strain of bacteria i.e plastic eating bacteria from the wetlands of Greater Nodia, an advanced that may be lead to eco-friendly alternative clean up methods for plastic waste material worldwide. The bacterial strain discovered by researchers at Shiv Nadar University in Greater Nodia, Uttar pradesh, have the potential to decompose polystyrene a key component in single use plastic item such as disposable cups, cutlery, toys, packaging material etc.
The bacterial species namely Exigueobacterium sibircum strain DR11 Exigueobacterium undae strain DR14 were isolated from the wetlands adjoining the University.
"Polystyrene is quite resistant to degradation due to its high molecular weight and long chain polymers structure. This is the region for their persistence in the environment, according to the study published in the journal royal society of chemistry Advances. The expotential production and consumption of polystyrene in Various sectors has presented a great environment risk and raised the problem of waste management the researchers noted."Our data supports the fact that strains of extremophile bacterium.
Exigueobacterium are capable of degrading and polystyrene and can be further used to mitigate the environment pollution caused by plastics,"Rich priyadarshini" Associate professor at Shiv Nadar University in Greater Nodia, told PTI.
Biodegration is a process by which microbial organism mainly bacteria and fungi transform and degrade chemicals introduced in the environment."This is dream solution of breaking plastic in natural process and making it biodegradable" Ghosh said. "We started out by just exploring the area to get a sense of bacterial species prevalent in these area but ended up isolating numerous bacterial species with unique and useful properties" added priyadarshini.
With new bacterial species discovered with plasotic Biodegration ability, she noted that novels enzyme and new potential metabolic pathways can be discovered which could help in bio remediation in future. The Researchers noted that both Exigueobacterium strains were able to establish biofilm on the polystyrene surface. Biofilms are assemblage of bacterial cells, which grow as communities reaching to very high cell densities. This leads to more targeted and localised actions of polymer degrading enzymes, the researchers said.
"Polystyrene is quite recalcitrant to degradation and requires some from of pre-treatment like chemicals, thermal, photo-oxidation etc prior to biodegration" said Priyadarshini.Both DR11 and DR14 strains were able to not only form of biofilms on non-treated polystyrene but were also found capable of degrading unmodified plastics researchers said.
"Human dependence on plastic material has increased substantially over the years, which has led to huge amounts of plastics accumulation in the environment leading to adverse effects on ecosystem, "priyadarshini said.She noted that more substantial methods for plastic degradation are required. The Researchers noted that the use of both indigenous and generally modified bacteria could lead to eco-friendly alternative clean-up methods for plastic waste. If this methods apply in whole India that can fulfill the aim of Sawwch Bharat Abhiyan.
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