Bioplastic Degradation, Production and Genetic Improvements of Bioplastic Producing Strains: A review

Plastics have been polluting the environment for a long time due to their persistence in all ecosystems and especially in the marine ecosystem. Until now, the best candidate found to substitute these products are the bioplastics. This is due to the presence of bacteria that can degrade them in nature and the similarities they show in their structure to petroleum-based plastics. These polymers are represented by polyhydroxy alcanoates (PHAs) and are produced naturally by bacterial cells as reservoir compounds for carbon and energy. Many PHA-producing microbial strains have been isolated worldwide including bacterial and fungal genera which could be used to produce bioplastics commercially. However, the major obstacle behind preventing the prevalence of bioplastics is their raw material cost. As a result, many studies have been conducted to produce PHAs, and their derivatives from waste raw materials. This will help to eliminate the cost of bioplastic production and simultaneously save the environment from an unfavorable accumulation of such wastes. Genetics has played an essential role in reducing the cost of bioplastics by manipulating microorganisms to produce more efficient bioplastic producers. Disrupting some genes and introducing others has been found to be helpful for the accumulation of PHAs in microbial producers.