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New insights into microbial degradation of polyethylene microplastic and potential polyethylene-degrading bacteria in sediments of the Pearl River Estuary, South China
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Researchers investigated the biodegradation potential of polyethylene microplastics by microbial communities in sediments from the Pearl River Estuary in southern China. They found that specific bacteria, particularly Pseudomonas and Bacillus species, were selectively enriched on microplastic surfaces and actively degraded the plastic, with Bacillus achieving 6.5% weight loss in 40 days. The study provides new insights into the natural capacity of estuarine sediment microbes to break down polyethylene microplastics.
Microplastics (MPs) are widely distributed pollutants in various ecosystems, and biodegradation is a crucial process for removal of MPs from environments. Pearl River Estuary, one of the largest estuaries in China, is an important reservoir for MPs with polyethylene MPs (PE-MPs) as the most abundant MPs. Here, biodegradation of PE-MPs and the potential PE-degrading bacteria in sediments of eight major outlets of Pearl River Estuary were firstly investigated. Results showed that biodegradation extent of PE-MPs varied for different sourced sediments, with highest extent for Hongqimen sediment and lowest extent for Jitimen sediment. Selective enrichment of specific bacteria occurred on PE-MPs with Pseudomonadaceae as the predominant family. Potential PE-degrading bacteria of Pseudomonas, Vulcaniibacterium, Cupriavidus, Bacillus were selectively enriched on PE-MPs and their abundance showed positive correlations with degradation extent of PE-MPs, indicating a vital role of them in degrading PE-MPs. Diverse pure cultured strains affiliated to the genera Bacillus, Pseudomonas, Priestia, Lysinibacillus, Marinobacter, Stutzerimonas and Achromobacter isolated from the plastispheres were capable of degrading PE-MPs rapidly, and members in Bacillus showed highest efffeciency of PE-MPs degradation with 6.5 % weight loss of PE-MPs within 40 days. This study provides a new perspective on the natural degradation potential by microbial communities in sediments.
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