Can biodegradable plastic be made out of this pathogenic bacteria?

Process of the fabrication of aquaplastic made from engineered microbial biofilms 


As it is known, petrochemical-based plastics play a huge role in the contamination of the planet. Taking into consideration that they are not biodegradable, the negative impact that they have on the ecosystem is irreversible. For this reason, the demand for the development and manufacturing of biodegradable bioplastics has increased in the recent years. A specific bioplastic that has been developed is aquaplastic, which is made using genetically modified Escherichia coli to ultimately produce protein-based hydrogels. Aquaplastic is biofilmed-based and can be molded to form three-dimensional figures with the use of water. The two types of aquaplastic are biofilm aquagels, which actually contain bacterial cells and curly aquagels, which are inert gels that do not contain any cells. Using biofilm aquagels, all types of shapes can be made and twisted without cracking or breaking the material. The biodegradability of aquaplastic was tested under aerobic conditions in the presence of a mixed culture of microorganisms from a wastewater treatment plant for a period of 45 days. Both forms of aquaplastics were compared with nanocellulose, which is known to have a very rapid biodegradation process. The results show that aquaplastic had a higher level of initial mass degradation than nanocellulose. Further studies showed that aquaplastics go through the degradation of any remaining protein-enriched material. The usage of petrochemical-based plastic around the world inevitably increases the pollution of oceans and leads to the growth of accumulation in landfills. The development of aquaplastics could potentially be very helpful for this issue.


Citation

Duraj-Thatte, A.M., Manjula-Basavanna, A., Courchesne, NM.D. et al. Water-processable, biodegradable and coatable aquaplastic from engineered biofilms. Nat Chem Biol 17, 732-738 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41589-021-00773-y

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