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Biodegradation of polystyrene with laccase-producing enterobacteria isolated from a municipal waste dump.
Summary
Researchers isolated three bacterial strains from a municipal waste dump and demonstrated their ability to biodegrade both crystal and expanded polystyrene through laccase enzyme activity. Enterobacter sp. UAMI-C3 was the most effective strain, achieving 0.85% weight loss of expanded polystyrene in 30 days, with copper sulfate induction boosting laccase-driven degradation.
In this work, the ability to biodegrade two samples of polystyrene (PS) was evaluated: crystal and expanded with three bacterial strains isolated from PS waste collected in the municipal dump of Chimalhuacán, Estado de Mexico. The biodegradation potential of the isolated strains was determined by means of substrate weight loss assays. All three bacterial strains were found to be able to biodegrade both types of PS. The study also aimed to determine if the isolated bacteria produce laccase. This enzyme belongs to the oxidoreductase family and is known to degrade polyethylene. Copper sulfate (CuSO4) was used as the inducer of laccase activity, and an increase in enzyme activity was observed with simultaneous loss of PS weight compared to the control assay without CuSO4. It was concluded that laccase directly participated in the biodegradation of this synthetic polymer. Enterobacter sp. UAMI-C3 proved to be the most efficient strain in the degradation of expanded PS with a weight decrease of 0.85% in 30 days with laccase activity at 9.8 x 10-3 U/mL.