Biodegradation of Low Density Polyethylene by Selected Bacillus sp.

Abstract

The necessity of environment friendly disposal policies designed for the biodegradation of synthetic plastics is tremendously crucial and need attention in the present scenario, considering the hazardous impact of widely used packaging material such as Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) on the environment. Our study aims to explore the degradation of LDPE by three strains of Bacillus sp. i.e ISJ51, ISJ55 and ISJ57. The magnitude of biodegradation was evaluated by several techniques comprising weight loss of the polyethylene sample, reduction in bacterial hydrophobicity and estimation of biomass attached to the polyethylene film. The maximum biodegradation i.e., 1.5%, as well as protein content (0.75 μg/cm2) of bacterial biofilm adhered on LDPE was observed in Bacillus sp. strain ISJ55 after 60 days of treatment. ISJ55 also demonstrated more hydrophobicity in comparison to ISJ51 and ISJ57, since, a 20.3% reduction in culture turbidity was specifying better attraction towards hydrophobic substances. SEM analysis revealed that ISJ55 exhibited morphological changes in polyethylene surface while FTIR images showed functional changes after an incubation of 60 days. The establishment of biofilms on polyethylene surface and adhesion capabilities of bacteria are deliberated as the first step in the process of biodegradation. Therefore these results show that the isolate ISJ55 can colonize, modify and utilize LDPE as a sole carbon source, signifying the potential of Bacillus sp. to degrade LDPE film. This manuscript also paves the way for future studies on biodegradation to resolve the universal issue.

Keywords

• Low density polyethylene,Biodegradation,Biofilm,Hydrophobicity

References

1. 6. REFERENCES 1. Grover, A., Gupta, A., Chandra, S., Kumari, A., Khurana, S.P., "Polythene and environment" International Journal of Environmental Sciences, 5(6):1091, (2015).
2. 2. Thompson, R.C., Swan, S.H., Moore, C.J., Vom Saal, F.S., Our plastic age, The Royal Society, (2009).
3. 3. Zylstra, E.R., "Accumulation of wind-dispersed trash in desert environments", Journal of arid environments, 89:13–15, (2013).
4. 4. Gregory, M.R., "Environmental implications of plastic debris in marine settings—entanglement, ingestion, smothering, hangers-on, hitch-hiking and alien invasions", Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences, 364(1526):2013–2025, (2009).
5. 5. Browne, M.A., Crump, P., Niven, S.J., Teuten, E., Tonkin, A., Galloway, T., et al.," Accumulation of microplastic on shorelines woldwide: sources and sinks", Environmental science & technology, 45(21):9175–9179, (2011).
6. 6. Albertsson, A.,C., Andersson, S.,O., "The mechanism of biodegradation of polyethylene", Polymer degradation and stability, 18(1):73–87. (1987).
7. 7. Lee, B., Pometto, A.L., Fratzke, A., Bailey, T.B., "Biodegradation of Degradable Plastic Polyethylene by Phanerochaete and Streptomyces Species" Applied and Environmental. Microbiology, 57(3):678–685, (1991).
8. 8. Erlandsson, B., Karlsson, S., Albertsson, A.C., "The mode of action of corn starch and a pro-oxidant system in LDPE: influence of thermo-oxidation and UV-irradiation on the molecular weight changes", Polymer Degradation and Stability, 755(2):237–245 (1997).

9. 9. Chiellini, E., Corti, A., Swift, G., "Biodegradation of thermally-oxidized, fragmented low-density polyethylenes", Polymer Degradation and Stability, 81(2):341–351(2003).
10. 10. Albertsson, A.C., Erlandsson, B., Hakkarainen, M., Karlsson, S.," Molecular weight changes and polymeric matrix changes correlated with the formation of degradation products in biodegraded polyethylene", Journal of Environmental Polymer Degradation, 6(4):187–195 (1998).
11. 11. Albertsson, A.C., Erlandsson, B., Hakkarainen, M., Karlsson, S., "Molecular weight changes and polymeric matrix changes correlated with the formation of degradation products in biodegraded polyethylene", Journal of Environmental Polymer Degradation, 64:91–99, (1999).
12. 12. Orr, I.G., Hadar, Y., Sivan, A., "Colonization, biofilm formation and biodegradation of polyethylene by a strain of Rhodococcus ruber", Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, 65(1):97–104, (2004).
13. 13. Sivan, A., Szanto, M., Pavlov, V., "Biofilm development of the polyethylene-degrading bacterium Rhodococcus ruber", Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, 72(2):346–352, (2006).
14. 14. Kathiresan, K., "Polythene and plastics-degrading microbes from the mangrove soil", Revista de biologia tropical, 51(3–4):629–633, (2003).
15. 15. Pramila, R., Ramesh, K.V., "Biodegradation of low density polyethylene (LDPE) by fungi isolated from marine water a SEM analysis", African Journal of Microbiology Research, 5(28):5013–5018, (2011).
16. 16. Pramila, R., Ramesh, K.V., "Biodegradation of low density polyethylene (LDPE) by fungi isolated from municipal landfill area", Journal of microbiology and biotechnology research, 1(4):131–136, (2017).
17. 17. Hadad, D., Geresh, S., Sivan, A., "Biodegradation of polyethylene by the thermophilic bacterium Brevibacillus borstelensis", Journal of Applied Microbiology, 98(5):1093–1100, (2005).
18. 18. Harshvardhan, K., Jha, B., "Biodegradation of low-density polyethylene by marine bacteria from pelagic waters, Arabian Sea, India", Marine Pollution Bulletin, 77(1–2):100–106, (2013).
19. 19. Restrepo-Flórez, J.M., Bassi, A., Thompson, M.R., "Microbial degradation and deterioration of polyethylene–A review", International Biodeterioration & Biodegradation, 88:83–90, (2014).
20. 20. Atalia, K.,R., Buha, D.M., Joshi, J.J., Shah, N.K., "Microbial biodiversity of municipal solid waste of Ahmedabad", Journal of Material and Environment Science, 6(7):1914–1923, (2015).
21. 21. Awasthi, S., Srivastava, N., Singh, T., Tiwary, D., Mishra, P.K., "Biodegradation of thermally treated low density polyethylene by fungus Rhizopus oryzae NS 5", 3 Biotech, 2017;7(1):73, (2017).
22. 22. Rosenberg, M., Gutnick, D., Rosenberg, E., "Adherence of bacteria to hydrocarbons: a simple method for measuring cell-surface hydrophobicity", FEMS Microbiology Letters, 9(1):29–33, (1980).
23. 23. Sivakumar, P.M., Iyer, G., Natesan, L., Doble, M., "3′-Hydroxy-4-methoxychalcone as a potential antibacterial coating on polymeric biomaterials", Applied Surface Science, 256(20):6018–6024, (2010).
24. 24. Arkatkar, A., Juwarkar, A.A., Bhaduri, S., Uppara, P.V., Doble, M., "Growth of Pseudomonas and Bacillus biofilms on pretreated polypropylene surface", International Biodeterioration & Biodegradation, 64(6):530–536, (2010).
25. 25. Kyaw, B.M., Champakalakshmi, R., Sakharkar, M.K., Lim, C.S., Sakharkar, K.R., "Biodegradation of low density polythene (LDPE) by Pseudomonas species", Indian Journal of Microbiology, 52(3):411–419, (2012).
26. 26. Yabannavar, A., Bartha, R., "Biodegradability of some food packaging materials in soil", Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 25(11):1469–1475, (1993).
27. 27. Bhardwaj, H., Gupta, R., Tiwari, A., "Microbial population associated with plastic degradation", Scientific Reports, 5:272–274, (2012).
28. 28. Board, N., The complete book on biodegradable plastics and polymers (recent developments properties, analyses, materials & processes), Asia Pacific Business Press, Delhi, (2006)
29. 29. Okpokwasili, G.C., Nweke, C.O., "Microbial growth and substrate utilization kinetics", African Journal of Biotechnology, 5(4):305–317, (2006).
30. 30. Vásquez-Murrieta, M.S., Hernández-Hernández, O.J., Cruz-Maya, J.A., Cancino-Díaz, J.C., Jan-Roblero, J., Approaches for removal of PAHs in soils: Bioaugmentation, biostimulation and bioattenuation. In: Soil Contamination-Current Consequences and Further Solutions, InTech; (2016)
31. 31. Lehman, R.M., Colwell, F.S., Ringelberg, D.B., White, D.C., "Combined microbial community-level analyses for quality assurance of terrestrial subsurface cores", Journal of Microbiological Methods, 22(3):263–281, (1995).
32. 32. Ribitsch, D., Acero, E.H., Greimel, K., Eiteljoerg, I., Trotscha, E., Freddi, G., et al., "Characterization of a new cutinase from Thermobifida alba for PET-surface hydrolysis", Biocatalysis and Biotransformation, 30(1):2–9, (2012).
33. 33. Yoshida, S., Hiraga, K., Takehana, T., Taniguchi, I., Yamaji, H., Maeda, Y., et al., "A bacterium that degrades and assimilates poly (ethylene terephthalate)", Science, 351(6278):1196–1199, (2016).
34. 34. Gupat, K.k., Devi, D., "isolation and charecterization of low density polyethylene degrading Bacillus sp. from garbage dump site", World journal of Pharmaceutical Science, 6(11): 609-617, (2017)