Assembly strategies for polyethylene-degrading microbial consortia based on the combination of omics tools and the "Plastisphere"

Chengxiao Zhang; Yulin Mu; Taihua Li; Feng-Jie Jin; Chun-Zhi Jin; Hee-Mock Oh; Hyung-Gwan Lee; Long Jin

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2023.1181967

Assembly strategies for polyethylene-degrading microbial consortia based on the combination of omics tools and the "Plastisphere"

Front Microbiol. 2023 Apr 17:14:1181967. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1181967. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Chengxiao Zhang¹, Yulin Mu¹, Taihua Li¹, Feng-Jie Jin¹, Chun-Zhi Jin², Hee-Mock Oh², Hyung-Gwan Lee², Long Jin¹

Affiliations

¹ College of Biology and the Environment, Co-Innovation Centre for Sustainable Forestry in Southern China, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, China.
² Cell Factory Research Centre, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience & Biotechnology, Daejeon, Republic of Korea.

Abstract

Numerous microorganisms and other invertebrates that are able to degrade polyethylene (PE) have been reported. However, studies on PE biodegradation are still limited due to its extreme stability and the lack of explicit insights into the mechanisms and efficient enzymes involved in its metabolism by microorganisms. In this review, current studies of PE biodegradation, including the fundamental stages, important microorganisms and enzymes, and functional microbial consortia, were examined. Considering the bottlenecks in the construction of PE-degrading consortia, a combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches is proposed to identify the mechanisms and metabolites of PE degradation, related enzymes, and efficient synthetic microbial consortia. In addition, the exploration of the plastisphere based on omics tools is proposed as a future principal research direction for the construction of synthetic microbial consortia for PE degradation. Combining chemical and biological upcycling processes for PE waste could be widely applied in various fields to promote a sustainable environment.

Keywords: microbial consortia; microplastics; nanoplastics; omics; plastisphere; polyethylene biodegradation.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the Korea Environment Industry & Technology Institute (KEITI) through a project to develop new, eco-friendly materials and processing technology derived from wildlife, funded by the Korea Ministry of Environment (MOE) (grant number 2021003240004), by the National Research Council of Science and Technology (NST) grant by the Korea government (MSIT) (CAP20023-200), and by the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB) Research Initiative Program (KGM5252322).