Finding the bacterial enzyme in the gut of plastic eating beetle larvae.

There has been much in the press in the last few weeks about super worms that can eat up all the plastic in the world. All this is headlines, the facts are somewhat different. Researchers at the University of Queensland and many others elsewhere have been studying the beetle larvae Zophobas morio which has an ability to eat and breakdown polystyrene and manage to extract a limited amount of energy from the plastic and go onto grow into an adult. The worm essentially shreds the plastic so the bacteria can biodegrade it and break it down into smaller molecules that may be more easily digestible. The worms’ unique gut microbiome may hold a key to developing a chemical process to biodegrade the material. The researchers now need to identify the enzyme in the bacteria and how all the enzymes fit together to hopefully find the most efficient way to break down our plastic waste.



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