Biological degradation of polyethylene terephthalate by rhizobacteria

Abstract

In view of the growing demand for plastic products, an enormous proportion of plastic waste causing the biological issue is produced. Plants in collaboration with their rhizobacteria partners are also exposed to these contaminants. The study aims to determine the rhizobacterial ability to biodegrade PET plastic. We isolated the rhizobacteria capable of degrading the PET plastic in minimal salt media using it as a sole carbon source. The three rhizospheric isolates, namely Priestia aryabhattai VT 3.12 (GenBank accession No. OK135732.1), Bacillus pseudomycoides VT 3.15 (GenBank accession No. OK135733.1), and Bacillus pumilus VT 3.16 (GenBank accession No. OK1357324.1), showed the highest degradation percentage for PET sheet and powder. The biodegradation end products post 28 days for PET sheet and 18 days of PET powder were studied by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Our results showed significant biodegradation of PET plastic, and the rate of degradation could account for over 65%. The present study proves soil rhizobacteria's potential and capabilities for efficient degradation of PET plastic occurring at the waste sites. It also implies that rhizobacteria could be beneficial in the remediation of PET waste in future applications.

Genetic Circuit Design in Rhizobacteria

“…Additionally, rhizobacterial circuitry could be co-opted to interact with pollutants and deleterious materials that plants encounter in the environment [ 364 ]. Bacterial pathways that degrade plastics and detoxify hazardous metals could be anchored within soil by root systems as robust remediation schemes [ 365 – 368 ].…”

Removal efficacy of toxic metals in leachate through micro-organisms isolated from the natural environment

“…Recently, P. aryabhattai was reported to reduce the phytotoxicity of arsenic in plants and is the most promising PGPR showing great potential for new plant production strategies as it possesses several important PGP properties (Ghosh et al 2018). Priestia aryabhattai has been shown to be able to degrade benzoate, methyl parathion, and polyethylene terephthalate (Dhaka et al 2022;Esikova et al 2021;. In addition, a specific strain of Priestia aryabhattai, namely KX-3, isolated from East Antarctica, was reported to be able to remove nitrogen under alkaline pH and low-temperature conditions (Kang et al 2023).…”