Cockroach Blaptica dubia biodegrades polystyrene plastics: Insights for superior ability, microbiome and host genes.
J Hazard Mater
; 479: 135756, 2024 Nov 05.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-39255668
ABSTRACT
The report demonstrated that a member of cockroach family, Blaptica dubia (Blattodea Blaberidae) biodegraded commercial polystyrene (PS) plastics with Mn of 20.3 kDa and Mw of 284.9 kDa. The cockroaches digested up to 46.6 % of ingested PS within 24 h. The biodegradation was confirmed by the 13C isotopic shift of the residual PS in feces versus pristine PS (Δ Î´13C of 2.28 ), reduction of molecular weight and formation of oxidative functional groups in the residual PS. Further tests found that B.dubia cockroaches degraded all eight high purity PS microplastics with low to ultra-high molecular weights (MW) at 0.88, 1.20, 3.92, 9.55, 62.5, 90.9, 524.0, and 1040 kDa, respectively, with superior biodegradation ability. PS depolymerization/biodegradation pattern was MW-dependent. Ingestion of PS shifted gut microbial communities and elevated abundances of plastic-degrading bacterial genes. Genomic, transcriptomic and metabolite analyses indicated that both gut microbes and cockroach host contributed to digestive enzymatic degradation. PS plastic diet promoted a highly cooperative model of gut digestive system. Weighted gene co-expression network analysis revealed different PS degradation patterns with distinct MW profiles in B. dubia. These results have provided strong evidences of plastic-degrading ability of cockroaches or Blaberidae family and new understanding of insect and their microbe mediated biodegradation of plastics.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Polystyrenes
/
Biodegradation, Environmental
/
Cockroaches
/
Gastrointestinal Microbiome
Limits:
Animals
Language:
En
Journal:
J Hazard Mater
/
J. hazard. mater
/
Journal of hazardous materials
Year:
2024
Document type:
Article