Lipase, lecithinase, esterase, and protease production screening as indicators of plastic-degrading potential of seaweed-associated bacteria

Plastic pollution is increasing on a daily basis, not only impacting the terrestrial environment, but also the marine environment. Plastics reaching the marine environment, fragment, forming microplastics which are detrimental to the health and survival of marine organisms. The marine environment is very resilient, which can be seen in the evolution of bacteria to be able to degrade plastics. They have achieved this by repurposing enzymes such as lipases, esterases, and proteases for this degradation. Lipase and esterase activities can be detected when growing bacteria on Tween agar, while lipase, lecithinase, and protease activity can be detected by growing bacteria on egg-yolk agar. In this dataset are images of the seaweed-associated isolates grown on egg-yolk agar and Tween agar. Image names denote the following:Medium_strain name_agarMedium = egg-yolk agar or Tween agarStrain name would varyAgar = may also have the additional ‘close-up’ indicator, where a close-up image was taken of the agar plate.For the images of Tween plates, where there are four plates in the image, the top left plate is Tween 60, bottom left plate is Tween 80, top right plate is Tween 20, and bottom right plate is Tween 40.For some images, the naming convention is:strain name_medium_agarTween agar is used to determine the production of lipases and esterases. A positive result is the formation of a deposit around the bacterial growth.Egg-yolk agar is used to detect protease, lipase, and lecithinase activity:Protease = zone of clearance around the bacterial growthLipase = pearl-like sheen on the agar surfaceLecithinase = white, opaque, diffuse zone extending from the growth due to insoluble diglyceride formation