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Learning From Biodiversity: Biological Systems as a Source of New Strategies for Microplastic and Nanoplastic Mitigation
Summary
This review paper suggests that instead of just fighting microplastic pollution, scientists should look to nature itself for solutions, studying how animals, fungi, and microbial communities in polluted environments already interact with tiny plastic particles by breaking them down, trapping them, or altering their surfaces. The key takeaway is that protecting biodiversity isn't just about saving species, it may also preserve a "living library" of natural strategies that could one day help clean up the microplastics found in our water, food, and even our bodies.
Microplastic and nanoplastic (MP/NP) pollution is widely recognized as a threat to ecosystems. At the same time, organisms living in plastic-contaminated environments offer an under-explored source of insight into how biological systems interact with persistent synthetic particles. Research on biological plastic remediation has largely focused on isolating individual microorganisms or polymer-degrading enzymes. Observations from animals, microbiomes, fungi, and other systems suggest a broader possibility: useful interactions with plastics can emerge from complex biological environments involving multiple enzymes, microbial communities, polysaccharides and mucus, physical processing, and environmental conditions. This perspective argues that biodiversity should be viewed not only as something threatened by MP/NP pollution, but also as a living library of particle-interaction strategies. Degradation is only one possible useful endpoint; fragmentation, surface modification, aggregation, binding, sequestration, immobilization, transformation, and clearance may also prove valuable depending on the application. Independent experiments using non-plastic-specific multi-enzyme mixtures combined with plant-derived polysaccharides further support investigation of systems-level particle interactions without requiring classical chemical depolymerization. Protecting biodiversity therefore preserves both species and ecosystem functions, and a reservoir of biological mechanisms that may inspire future environmental technologies.