The DOI matches its Crossref record; 10 of the 10 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Evidence of Polyethylene Biodegradation by Bacterial Strains from the Guts of Plastic-Eating Waxworms
Abstract
Polyethylene (PE) has been considered nonbiodegradable for decades. Although the biodegradation of PE by bacterial cultures has been occasionally described, valid evidence of PE biodegradation has remained limited in the literature. We found that waxworms, or Indian mealmoths (the larvae of Plodia interpunctella), were capable of chewing and eating PE films. Two bacterial strains capable of degrading PE were isolated from this worm's gut, Enterobacter asburiae YT1 and Bacillus sp. YP1. Over a 28-day incubation period of the two strains on PE films, viable biofilms formed, and the PE films' hydrophobicity decreased. Obvious damage, including pits and cavities (0.3-0.4 μm in depth), was observed on the surfaces of the PE films using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The formation of carbonyl groups was verified using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and microattenuated total reflectance/Fourier transform infrared (micro-ATR/FTIR) imaging microscope. Suspension cultures of YT1 and YP1 (10(8) cells/mL) were able to degrade approximately 6.1 ± 0.3% and 10.7 ± 0.2% of the PE films (100 mg), respectively, over a 60-day incubation period. The molecular weights of the residual PE films were lower, and the release of 12 water-soluble daughter products was also detected. The results demonstrated the presence of PE-degrading bacteria in the guts of waxworms and provided promising evidence for the biodegradation of PE in the environment.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
Life in the “plastisphere”: microbial communities on plastic marine debris
Zettler, E. R., Mincer, T. J., & Amaral-Zettler, L. A. (2013) · Environmental Science & Technology · doi:10.1021/es401288x · Cited by 3,368
Tokiwa, Y., Calabia, B. P., Ugwu, C. U., & Aiba, S. (2009) · International Journal of Molecular Sciences · doi:10.3390/ijms10093722 · Cited by 1,782
Santo, M., Weitsman, R., & Sivan, A. (2013) · International Biodeterioration & Biodegradation · doi:10.1016/j.ibiod.2012.03.001 · Cited by 521
Biofilm development of the polyethylene-degrading bacterium rhodococcus ruber
Sivan, A., Szanto, M., & Pavlov, V. (2006) · Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology · doi:10.1007/s00253-005-0259-4 · Cited by 415
Otake, Y., Kobayashi, T., Asabe, H., Murakami, N., & Ono, K. (1995) · Journal of Applied Polymer Science · doi:10.1002/app.1995.070561309 · Cited by 307
Biofouling and stability of synthetic polymers in sea water
Artham, T., Sudhakar, M., Venkatesan, R., Madhavan Nair, C., Murty, K. V. G. K., & Doble, M. (2009) · International Biodeterioration & Biodegradation · doi:10.1016/j.ibiod.2009.03.003 · Cited by 281
The three stages in degradation of polymers—polyethylene as a model substance
Albertsson, A., & Karlsson, S. (1988) · Journal of Applied Polymer Science · doi:10.1002/app.1988.070350515 · Cited by 194
Albertsson, A.-C. (1978) · Journal of Applied Polymer Science · doi:10.1002/app.1978.070221207 · Cited by 158
Outdoor weathering of selected polymeric materials under marine exposure conditions
Pegram, J. E., & Andrady, A. L. (1989) · Polymer Degradation and Stability · doi:10.1016/0141-3910(89)90112-2 · Cited by 129
Microbial and oxidative effects in degradation of polyethene
Albertsson, A. ‐., & Bánhidi, Z. G. (1980) · Journal of Applied Polymer Science · doi:10.1002/app.1980.070250813 · Cited by 120
Cited by
Degradation rates of plastics in the environment
Chamas, A., Moon, H., Zheng, J., Qiu, Y., Tabassum, T., Jang, J. H., Abu-Omar, M., Scott, S. L., & Suh, S. (2020) · ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering · doi:10.1021/acssuschemeng.9b06635 · Cited by 3,463
Bioplastics for a circular economy
Rosenboom, J.-G., Langer, R., & Traverso, G. (2022) · Nature Reviews Materials · doi:10.1038/s41578-021-00407-8 · Cited by 2,116
Source, migration and toxicology of microplastics in soil
Guo, J.-J., Huang, X.-P., Xiang, L., Wang, Y.-Z., Li, Y.-W., Li, H., Cai, Q.-Y., Mo, C.-H., & Wong, M.-H. (2020) · Environment International · doi:10.1016/j.envint.2019.105263 · Cited by 1,211
Microbial and Enzymatic Degradation of Synthetic Plastics
Mohanan, N., Montazer, Z., Sharma, P. K., & Levin, D. B. (2020) · Frontiers in Microbiology · doi:10.3389/fmicb.2020.580709 · Cited by 1,122
Plastics: Environmental and Biotechnological Perspectives on Microbial Degradation
Danso, D., Chow, J., & Streit, W. R. (2019) · Applied and Environmental Microbiology · doi:10.1128/aem.01095-19 · Cited by 918
Metadata
- Authors
- Yang, J., Yang, Y., Wu, W.-M., Zhao, J., & Jiang, L.
- Venue
- Environmental Science & Technology
- Publisher
- American Chemical Society (ACS)
- Published
- 2014-11-19
- Volume
- 48
- Issue
- 23
- Pages
- 13776-13784
- ISSN
- 0013-936X (ISSN-L)
- 1520-5851
- OpenAlex
- W2052141210
- Cited by
- 1,022
- References
- 10
- FWCI
- 10.23
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
Data sources
Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
