Could wax worms eat us out of the plastic crisis?
Embargoed until:
Publicly released:
2022-10-05 02:00
Enzymes found in the saliva of wax worms may be capable of oxidising and degrading polyethylene plastic relatively quickly, according to Spanish and Italian researchers. They hope their discovery will help devise solutions to the plastic waste problem. The team studied wax worm (Galleria mellonella) larvae saliva and noticed it can degrade polyethylene, breaking it down into smaller molecules. They analysed the saliva proteins and identified two enzymes that can degrade polyethylene, which they named Demetra and Ceres after the Greek and Roman goddesses of agriculture. They say the initial oxidation, to allow the breakdown of polyethylene, occurs in just a few hours at room temperature. Previous methods of breaking down plastics using microorganisms can take months, and require heat or radiation to achieve the initial oxidation, the scientists say.
Journal/conference: Nature Communications
Research: Paper
Organisation/s: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC), Spain
Funder: This work has been funded as
follows: Roechling Stiftung to F.B., Consejo Superior de Investigacion Cientifica (CSIC) to F.B., NATO Science for Peace and Security Programme
(Grant SPS G5536) to T.T., Junta de Castilla y León, Consejería
de Educación y Cultura y Fondo Social Europeo (Grant BU263P18) to T.T.,
Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Grant PID2019-111215RB-100) to T.T.,
The Generalitat de Catalunya (2017 SGR 1192) to M.S., and Ministerio de
Ciencia e Innovación (Grant PID2020-120275GB-I00) to E.A.-P.
Media release
From: Springer Nature
Plastic degrading enzymes found in wax worm saliva
Enzymes found in the saliva of wax worms may be capable of oxidising and degrading polyethylene plastic, a paper published in Nature Communications reports. These findings could aid the development of solutions to deal with the problem of plastic waste.
Plastic pollution is considered a major environmental concern, with polyethylene representing around 30% of synthetic plastic production. Previous research has shown that polyethylene can be degraded by biological means, but this generally requires a harsh abiotic pre-treatment to begin the process (for example, using heat or radiation). The degradation can be achieved by some microorganisms but this is a very slow process that can take months. In addition, the enzymes responsible have not been identified
Federica Bertocchini and colleagues studied wax worm (Galleria mellonella) larvae saliva and show that wax worm saliva can degrade polyethylene, breaking it down into smaller molecules. They analysed all of the proteins in the saliva and identified two enzymes that can reproduce this effect, which they name Demetra and Ceres after the Greek and Roman goddesses of agriculture. Using these enzymes, they demonstrate that the initial oxidation, to allow the breakdown of polyethylene, can occur in only a few hours at room temperature.
The authors suggest that these enzymes could open up new approaches to plastic waste degradation as well as the upcycling of plastic components.
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