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The Role and Application of Microbial Enzymes in Microplastics’ Bioremediation: Available and Future Perspectives
Summary
This chapter reviews how microbial enzymes — including PETases, laccases, and cutinases — can break down microplastic polymers in soil and aquatic environments, and how advances in metagenomics and enzyme engineering are accelerating discovery of new plastic-degrading candidates. While promising, the authors note that no enzyme-based solution is yet scalable enough to meaningfully reduce the microplastic burden already present in the environment.
Microplastic contamination is an increasing environmental concern worldwide, with microplastic particles found in various ecosystems, including soil. Because microplastics are non-biodegradable, they pose severe removal and disposal issues. The employment of biological organisms to break down or degrade toxins, known as bioremediation, has emerged as a remedy for microplastic pollution. Microbial enzymes play an important role in bioremediation by facilitating the breakdown and degradation of microplastics, as many plastic-degrading enzymes have been discovered and purified over the last decades. Thanks to the high-throughput newly investigated "omics" techniques and also efforts on enzyme engineering, this exploration has now been speeded up, but despite these advances, plastic and microplastic pollution issues are still among the unsolved environmental concerns. This chapter emphasizes the importance of microbial enzymes in the bioremediation of microplastics by exploring their diversity, methods of action, and prospective uses in tackling microplastic pollution and how far are we from using this approach to solving this problem. This understanding will pave the way for the creation of efficient and environmentally friendly ways to tackle the growing menace of microplastics.