Plastics that support Contemporary life is inexpensive, powerful and versatile, but complex to get rid of and have a earnest impact when it is released in the environment. In particular, polyethylene is the most -produced plastic in the world, with over 100 million tons widespread annually. Because the distribution may take a decade – and on the way it can harm wild nature and degrade into harmful microplasty – removal is an urgent problem for humanity.
In 2017, European researchers discovered A potential solution. Wax moth larvae, commonly known as wax worms, have the ability to break down polyethylene in their bodies. Since old worms, they have been considered pests because they parasitize hives, feeding on bee. However, we now know that they also spontaneously feed on polyethylene, which has a chemically similar structure.
“About 2,000 wax worms can break down the entire polyethylene bag in just 24 hours, although we think that the coefficient of nursing stimulants, such as sugars, can significantly reduce the number of worms,” said Dr. Bryan Cassone, a biology professor at Brandon University in Canada, in Canada, in press release. Cassone and his team studied how these insects can be used to support fight plastic pollution. “Understanding the biological mechanisms and the consequences of the condition of biodegradation of plastics is the key to using wax worms for plastic waterfront,” he says.
In previous experiments Cassone and his team I found out Exactly like wax worms, they break down polyethylene. To understand their digestive mechanism, the Cassone syndrome fed the polyethylene with worms for several days and followed the metabolic processes of insects and changes in the intestinal environment. They discovered that when wax worms ate polyethylene, their faeces were liquefied and contained glycol as a by -product.
But when the intestinal bacteria of insects were suppressed by administration of antibiotics, the amount of glycol in their feces was significantly reduced. This revealed that the breakdown of polyethylene depends on the intestinal microorganisms of worms.
The band also isolated bacteria from the inside of wax worms, and then rated strains that could survive on polyethylene as their only source of food. Among them was the strain Acinetobacterwhich survived for over a year in the laboratory environment and continued to spread polyethylene. This revealed how solid and lasting intestinal flora wax worm is the ability to unfold plastics.
However, in reality, when it comes to consuming plastic, intestinal bacteria do not work alone. When scientists conducted an insect genetic analysis, they found that wax worms fed by plastic showed increased expression of genes associated with fat metabolism, and after feeding plastic, wax worms duly showed signs of increasing fat. Armed with their digester plastic intestinal bacteria, larvae can break the plastics and transform them into lipids, which they then store in their bodies.
However, the only plastic diet did not cause a long -term experience of wax worms. In their latest experiment, the team said that wax worms, which still eat only polyethylene, died in a few days and lost great importance. This showed that wax worms are complex to constantly process polyethylene waste. But scientists believe that creating a source of food to support you consume polyethylene would mean that wax worms would be able to maintain a well life on the diet of plastics and improve the performance of the distribution.
Looking to the future, the team suggests two strategies to operate the wax worm ability to consume plastics. One of them is the mass production of wax worms fed with a polyethylene diet, while providing them with nutrition support needed to survive long -term, and then integrating them with the circulation economy, using the insects themselves to get rid of waste plastic. The second is to redesign the trail of degradation of plastic wax worms in the laboratory, using only microorganisms and enzymes, and thus create a way to get rid of plastic that does not need real insects.
On the punching route, a by-product would be a huge amount of insect biomass-maintained larvae fed with plastic. They can be potentially transformed into highly nutritious feed for the aquaculture industry, because according to the research team data, insects can be a good source of protein for commercial fish.
This story originally appeared Wired Japan And it was translated from Japanese.