It may be one of the most shattering discoveries in the history of science. Research scientists in Japan have recently discovered a bacteria that seems to be using plastic as food. Because plastic has been always thought of as being invincible when it comes to it possibly being destroyed, the findings by the Japanese appear rather remarkable.
It is considered to be an entirely new form of bacteria and the researchers at Kyoto University noticed it growing on a large pile of discarded plastic. They observed that the bacteria had attached itself to the plastic and was actually using it as a source of food. The new species has been named after the city of Sakai where it was found growing and is now known as Ideonella Sakaiensis. The bacteria was found growing on and eating plastic known as PET or polyethylene terepthalate.
Microbiologist Shosuke Yoshida, the lead author on the study, said that, “It’s the most unique thing. The bacterium can degrade the PET and then make their body from PET.”
Because plastic tends to be just gigantic chains of repeating molecules, they are just too huge for anything to be able to penetrate and get to the middle of it to break it down. It is just too big for anything to get inside of a cell and to metabolize it.
The new bacteria seems to be able to break the plastic down into smaller and smaller chunks. The bacteria then can easily consume these smaller parts and then can turn them into water and carbon dioxide. After the scientists had isolated the bacteria, they then applied it to certain plastic objects so that they could actually see the bacteria eating and destroying the plastic.
The bacteria, however, eats extremely slowly Yoshida said. Because of that, Yoshida doesn’t see any immediate or direct application to the mountains of plastic garbage that currently infests the planet. The future hope is, however, that the new bacteria strain can be engineered in the lab to become as fast as they need it to be. Perhaps then, it will be able to effectively take on the mountains of plastic refuse everywhere some day soon.
PHOTO CREDIT: Pixabay