Degradation of Polyethylene Using Microbial Communities and Recombinant Microorganisms

Application of microbial consortium and recombinant microorganisms in polyethylene degradation() Polyethylene (PE), a commonly used plastic, has become a major global pollutant.Although there have been reports of microorganisms and potential enzymes capable of degrading PE, the current understanding of the degradation process and the practical application is limited.A microbe possessing all the necessary PE-degrading enzymes and effectively degrading and mineralizing PE has yet to be isolated.Individual microbes, therefore, with limited metabolic functions, may be less efficient in breaking down PE when used alone.As a potential solution to this limitation, one approach involves creating a microbial consortium with a specialized member for each enzyme.Another approach entails genetically engineering a suitable host bacterium to express these target enzymes. Consortium strategy for PE biodegradationIn this strategy, an artificial bacterial consortium was constructed to degrade PE.Bacterial strains for the consortium were selected based on their reported ability to degrade PE, as found in the literature.Enzyme activity of various PE-degrading enzymes, such as laccases, lipases, esterases, and alkane hydroxylases, with a focus on their extracellular expression, was assessed for these strains.Based on these results, an artificial bacterial consortium was constructed and used for PE degradation.