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IDENTIFICATION AND APPLICATION OF DRYWOOD TERMITE (Cryptotermes cavifrons Banks) GUT MICROBIOTA FOR PLASTICS BIODEGRADATION
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Researchers identified three bacterial species—Bacillus cereus, Enterobacter hormaechei, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa—from drywood termite gut microbiota and demonstrated their capacity to degrade polyethylene plastics, with Bacillus cereus achieving up to 17% weight loss of low-density polyethylene over 30 days.
Plastic has recently become the focus of global attention due to high accumulation in the environment which consequently threatens man and the ecosystem. This research identified dry wood termites’ gut microbiota and explored their potential for plastic biodegradation. Termite samples were collected from dead and decaying woods and polythene bags from disposal sites around Dutse, Jigawa state, Nigeria. Homogenized termite’s guts were cultured on Nutrient agar, incubated at 37 ºϹ for 24 hours and biochemical tests performed on different isolates. Two plastic categories; high–density polyethylene (HDPE) and low–density polyethylene (LDPE) were cut into pieces, weighed and aseptically transferred into prepared nutrient broth with 1.0×105 , 1.0×104 , 1.0×103 , 1.0×102 and 1.0×101 microbial cultures while another treatment without microbes was maintained as control and plastic percentage weight loss was calculated after 30 days while analysis of variance was used to test the difference among treatments. Three bacterial species capable of degrading plastics were identified viz; Bacillus cereus, Enterobacter hormaechei and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The control treatment had the lowest percentage weight loss of 1.38±0.81% while in Bacillus cereus, the highest was 17.24±7.31% in 1.0×105LDPE treatment, Enterobacter hormaechei had the highest efficacy of 11.40±2.31% in 1.0×105LDPE and Pseudomonas aeruginosa had the highest efficacy of 5.01±3.15% in 1.0×104 LDPE with a significant difference (P<0.05) among treatments. Identified bacterial strains were more efficient on LDPE with Bacillus and Enterobacter having a linear relationship with it, giving an auspicious indication and possibility of their use in plastic clean–up.
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