Plastic Eating Bacteria?
We're looking into scientific articles we find interesting!
Did you know bacteria found in the human gut can degrade plastics?
Identification of plastic-degrading bacteria in the human gut
Yejin Jang, Indra Nyamjav, Hong Rae Kim, Dong-Eun Suh, Nohyoon Park, Ye Eun Lee, Sukkyoo Lee
Due to environmental pollution, microplastics have been found in the environment, the food chain, and the human body.
But Researchers found four low density polyethylene degrading bacterial species.
- Klebsiella oxytoca
- Klebsiella pneumoniae
- Enterobacter ludwigii
- Enterobacter sichuanensis
And three polypropelene degrading bacterial species inside of the human gut microbiome
- Klebsiella oxytoca
- Klebsiella pneumoniae
- Enterobacter ludwigii
Each bacterial species formed colonies on low density polyethylene and polypropylene and physically degraded LDPE or PP film via oxidation.
The authors reported this in 2024 and said that it was the first report identifying plastic degrading bacteria in the human gut.
While they are present, their abundance is relatively low in a healthy gut according to researchers. So we might not be able to get rid of all the plastics in the human gut but I didn’t know we had some opportunistic pathogens in our microbiome was helping to fight back!
I think its so cool we have something in our guts that is eating these microplastics.
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