Yeast-Mediated Plastic Biodegradation

Plastic pollution is a global environmental crisis, and microbial degradation represents a promising remediation strategy. While bacteria have been widely studied, yeasts offer unique advantages for plastic degradation due to their metabolic versatility, stress tolerance, and enzymatic capabilities. However, plastic degradative yeasts have not been reviewed comprehensively. Although several yeasts capable of degrading polyethylene terephthalate (PET) or polyethylene (PE) have been reported (e.g., Moesziomyces antarcticus, Candida tropicalis, Yarrowia lipolytica and Rhodotorula mucilaginosa), degraders of other plastic types are less studied. Although some yeasts can assimilate carbon from plastics, the diversity of yeasts capable of participating in plastic mineralization remains vastly underexplored. In recent years, yeast cell surface display systems for bacterial PETase and fungal cutinase have been developed, demonstrating promising PET degradation efficiency. However, PETase is feedback-inhibited by the intermediate product mono(2-hydroxyethyl)terephthalate (MHET). Systems synergizing PETase with MHETase have shown superior stability during long-term PET degradation and enable large-scale depolymerization of PET waste. For high-crystallinity PET, fungal hydrophobins can be used to modify the surface hydrophobicity of PETase-displaying yeast cells, facilitating their attachment to hydrophobic PET surfaces and ultimately enhancing the degradation efficiency of the whole-cell biocatalyst. Limitations of current research and future directions are also discussed.