Powerful marine fungi can eat it and break down plastic and condition it to make it faster

Plastics are the most common marine pollutants, and plastic surfaces are the fastest growing habitat in the ocean. Researchers at the University of Hawaii in Manoa (Um) recently discovered that many species of fungi isolated from Hawaii’s near waters have the ability to break down plastics, and some are conditioned to make them faster. did.

This work is featured in Journal Mycologia.

“Plastics in today’s environments have a very long life and are nearly impossible to degrade using existing technologies,” says Ronja Steinbach, who led the study as an undergraduate in marine biology at UHMānoa College of Natural Sciences. He said.

“Our research highlights it as a promising and largely undeveloped group to investigate new ways marine bacteria can recycle and remove plastic from nature. Most people study fungi in the oceans not here. “

For consumers, plastic is inexpensive, strong and useful, but plastic waste is problematic. This is because it does not disassemble, but infiltrates microplastics when exposed to sunlight, heat and physical forces. Plastics are harmful to marine ecosystems. These can concentrate dangerous chemicals such as phthalates and bisphenol A. It traps or harms animals. Or, it can be ingested due to malnutrition, leading to starvation in marine animals. It is equivalent to about 625,000 garbage plastic trucks each year, and it is important to find a way to break down these compounds.

Microorganisms with superpowers

A variety of microorganisms, including bacteria and terrestrial bacteria, are being tested for their ability to break down plastics, hoping that biotechnology will one day be able to unfold at an ecologically relevant scale. Many terrestrial bacteria have previously been found to break down different types of plastic, but a team of researchers at UH Manoa School of Marine Science and Technology (SOest) found a large scale of fungi isolated from sand, seaweed and sand We focused on the collection. Corals and sponges from nearby Hawaiian waters.

“The fungi have a superpower to eat things other organisms cannot digest (such as wood and chitin), so we tested fungi in our collection for their ability to digest plastics,” co-author of the study and ocean. Graduate students in biology, Steinbach and Syrena Whitner, lead the lab where they conducted the research.

To do this, the team fills small dishes with polyurethane, a common plastic commonly used in medical and industrial products such as foam, flexible materials, adhesives, and whether the fungi consumed the plastic; Measured quickly. Researchers have adopted the fastest growing, experimentally evolved fungi and have seen whether these fungi can eat plastic faster and more efficiently when exposed to polyurethanes.

“We were shocked that over 60% of the fungi we collect from the oceans have the ability to eat plastic and turn them into fungi,” Steinbach said. “We were also impressed by how quickly the fungus adapted. In a relatively short time in just three months, some of the fungus were able to increase feeding speeds by up to 15. It was very exciting to see. %.”

Due to the thyroid location of Hawaii’s North Pacific subtropical thyroid, currents are delivered to plastic waste to coasts around the world, with amazing Pacific garbage patches nearby.

The UHMānoa team is currently expanding their research to see if these promising fungi and other fungi can eat different types of plastic, such as polyethylene and polyethylene terephthalate. Scientists are also trying to understand how fungi can break down these compounds at the cellular and molecular level.

“We want to work with engineers, chemists and oceanographers who can use these findings to be used in real-world solutions to clean beaches and oceans,” Steinbach shared.