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Can polymer-degrading microorganisms solve the bottleneck of plastics' environmental challenges?
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This review asks whether plastic-degrading microorganisms can meaningfully address the global plastic pollution problem. Researchers surveyed known biodegradation pathways and found that while promising microbes and enzymes exist, real-world applications remain limited by slow degradation rates and narrow substrate specificity. They highlight how omics and synthetic biology tools could accelerate development of practical bioremediation solutions.
Increasing world population and industrial activities have enhanced anthropogenic pollution, plastic pollution being especially alarming. So, plastics should be recycled and/or make them biodegradable. Chemical and physical remediating methods are usually energy consuming and costly. In addition, they are not ecofriendly and usually produce toxic byproducts. Bioremediation is a proper option as it is cost-efficient and environmentally friendly. Plastic production and consumption are increasing daily, and, as a consequence, more microorganisms are exposed to these nonbiodegradable polymers. Therefore, investigating new efficient microorganisms and increasing the knowledge about their biology can pave the way for efficient and feasible plastic bioremediation processes. In this sense, omics, systems biology and bioinformatics are three important fields to analyze the biodegradation pathways in microorganisms. Based on the above-mentioned technologies, researchers can engineer microorganisms with specific desired properties to make bioremediation more efficient.
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This review synthesizes current knowledge on microbial plastic degradation, covering the enzymes and metabolic pathways involved in breaking down major synthetic polymers, the challenges limiting efficient biodegradation, and perspectives for engineering improved microbial solutions to plastic waste.
Harnessing Microorganisms for Microplastic Degradation: A Sustainable Approach to Mitigating Environmental Pollution
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This review surveys microorganisms—bacteria, fungi, and other taxa—capable of degrading microplastics, examining the enzymes, metabolic pathways, and environmental conditions involved, and assessing the practical potential of harnessing these organisms for bioremediation of plastic pollution.
Why have we not yet solved the challenge of plastic degradation by biological means?
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This review explores why biological plastic degradation remains unsolved despite decades of research, examining the limitations of microbial and enzymatic approaches and arguing that complementary strategies combining multiple methods will be needed.
Microbial Degradation of Plastics
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This review covers microbial species capable of degrading synthetic plastics, examining the enzymes and metabolic pathways involved and the environmental conditions that influence breakdown rates. While microbial degradation offers a promising long-term remediation strategy, the review concludes that current rates are far too slow to address the scale of plastic accumulation in the environment.
Microbial biodegradation of plastics: Challenges, opportunities, and a critical perspective
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Researchers reviewed microbial biodegradation of synthetic plastics, summarizing the bacterial and fungal species, enzymes, and biochemical pathways capable of breaking down common polymers and arguing that combining microbial approaches with physicochemical methods offers the most promising eco-friendly route to plastic waste remediation.
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