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- [Minireview]Biodegradation of plastics: mining of plastic-degrading microorganisms and enzymes using metagenomics approaches
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Dae-Wi Kim , Jae-Hyung Ahn , Chang-Jun Cha
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J. Microbiol. 2022;60(10):969-976. Published online September 27, 2022
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12275-022-2313-7
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Abstract
- Plastic pollution exacerbated by the excessive use of synthetic
plastics and its recalcitrance has been recognized among the
most pressing global threats. Microbial degradation of plastics
has gained attention as a possible eco-friendly countermeasure,
as several studies have shown microbial metabolic
capabilities as potential degraders of various synthetic plastics.
However, still defined biochemical mechanisms of biodegradation
for the most plastics remain elusive, because the
widely used culture-dependent approach can access only a
very limited amount of the metabolic potential in each microbiome.
A culture-independent approach, including metagenomics,
is becoming increasingly important in the mining
of novel plastic-degrading enzymes, considering its more expanded
coverage on the microbial metabolism in microbiomes.
Here, we described the advantages and drawbacks associated
with four different metagenomics approaches (microbial community
analysis, functional metagenomics, targeted gene sequencing,
and whole metagenome sequencing) for the mining
of plastic-degrading microorganisms and enzymes from
the plastisphere. Among these approaches, whole metagenome
sequencing has been recognized among the most powerful
tools that allow researchers access to the entire metabolic potential
of a microbiome. Accordingly, we suggest strategies
that will help to identify plastisphere-enriched sequences as
de novo plastic-degrading enzymes using the whole metagenome
sequencing approach. We anticipate that new strategies
for metagenomics approaches will continue to be developed
and facilitate to identify novel plastic-degrading microorganisms
and enzymes from microbiomes.
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