Scientists Gene Hack Bacteria That Breaks Down Plastic Waste
The bacteria “could be optimized and exploited to help get rid of plastics in the environment.” Bottom Feeders We may have a way of literally eating away at our planet’s pollution crisis. As part of a new study published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, researchers have shed additional light on a possibly game-changing bacteria that grows on common polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastics, confirming that it can break down and eat the polymers that make up the waste. Scientists have long been interested in the plastic-decomposing abilities of the bacteria, Comamonas testosteroni. But this is the first time that the mechanisms behind that process have been fully documented, according to study senior author Ludmilla Aristilde. “The machinery in environmental microbes is still a largely untapped potential for uncovering sustainable solutions we can exploit,” Aristilde, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Northwestern University in Illinois, told The Washington Post. Enzyme or Reason To observe its plastic-devouring ability, the researchers isolated a bacterium sample, grew it on shards of PET plastics, and then …