Metatranscriptomics of microbial biofilm succession on HDPE foil: uncovering plastic-degrading potential in soil communities
Joana MacLean, Alexander Bartholomäus, Roberts Blukis, Susanne Liebner, Dirk Wagner · 2024
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Description
Joana MacLean and four co-authors present a 2024 study on microbes that gather on plastic buried in soil. Plastic waste keeps building up in landfills and fields, yet what soil microbes do on its surface was largely unknown. The team placed polyethylene foil in polluted landfill soil and in forest soil. Over fifty-three days they tracked which genes the surface biofilms switched on.
Landfill microbes seemed primed to settle on plastic and attack it. Surprisingly, forest microbes also carried a wide kit of plastic-related genes. Early in biofilm growth, plastic-eating species ramped up. As the film matured, genes for breaking down polyethylene and burning the resulting fats rose. The authors conclude that natural soil communities carry real potential to biodegrade plastic. The work gives the first gene-activity map of this process.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Joana MacLean, Alexander Bartholomäus, Roberts Blukis, Susanne Liebner, Dirk Wagner |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2024 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 67 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |