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Microbial-Mediated Plastic Degradation: A Sustainable Pathway to Environmental Health
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This review examines how microorganisms degrade plastics through enzymes such as esterases, cutinases, and laccases via a four-phase process ending in mineralization to CO2, water, and methane. It also covers metabolic pathways and protein engineering approaches that could enhance microbial plastic degradation for environmental remediation.
Plastic pollution has surged due to excessive use and poor disposal of non-biodegradable polymers.Physical and chemical breakdown methods are inefficient and release toxic by-products.An alternate and eco-friendly approach to overcome plastic contamination is the utilization of plastic degrading microbes.These microbial species degrade plastic by the action of variety of enzymes, synthesized in their mircofactories.The plastic degrading enzymes include esterases, cutinases, lipases, protease, peroxidases and laccases.The biochemical process of plastic biodegradation comprised of four phases i.e.,biodeterioration, biofragmentation, assimilation and mineralization.Plastic is utilized by microorganisms as essential carbon and energy source, which is followed by the production of non-toxic and neutral substances like CO2, H2O, CH4 along with biomass.This comprehensive review reveals the role of different microbes in the biodegradation of plastic, various enzymes involved in polymer degradation, underlying metabolic pathways associated with plastic depolymerization, molecular strategies and protein engineering methodologies for the enhancement of microbial plastic degradation process.
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Plastic Biodegradation: Potential of Microbial Enzymes
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This review examines microbial enzymes that have demonstrated the ability to break down synthetic plastics, a process that could offer a biological route to plastic waste remediation. The paper surveys the range of enzyme types, the plastic substrates they target, and the mechanisms by which they degrade polymer chains. Understanding these enzymatic pathways is a critical step toward engineering scalable biocatalytic solutions for plastic biodegradation.
Microbial plastic degradation: enzymes, pathways, challenges, and perspectives.
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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.
Role of Various Microbes and Their Enzymatic Mechanisms for Biodegradation of Microplastics
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This review examines the microbial enzymes and degradation mechanisms responsible for biodegrading microplastic polymers, covering bacterial, fungal, and algal systems that have evolved plastic-degrading capabilities over the past 150 years of plastic production. The authors survey the most promising enzymatic pathways and organisms for biotechnological application in microplastic remediation.
Bacterial biodegradation of synthetic plastics: a review
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This review examines how bacteria break down synthetic plastics through a four-step process — biodeterioration, depolymerization, assimilation, and mineralization — using specialized enzymes as part of metabolic pathways. While bacterial biodegradation offers an eco-friendly alternative to plastic waste management, the process remains slow and faces real-world limitations that require further research to overcome.
The biochemical mechanisms of plastic biodegradation
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This review comprehensively maps the biochemical pathways by which microorganisms break down synthetic plastics, ranking the most effective biodegrading organisms for each major plastic type and cataloging experimental techniques used in the field to guide future biodegradation research.
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When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.