Nawong Chairat, Umsakul Kamontam, Sermwittayawong Natthawan
Prince of Songkla University, Faculty of Science, Department of Microbiology, Songkhla, Thailand.
Prince of Songkla University, Faculty of Science, Department of Microbiology, Songkhla, Thailand.
Braz J Microbiol. 2018 Jul-Sep;49(3):481-488. doi: 10.1016/j.bjm.2017.07.006. Epub 2018 Feb 3.
An increasing production of natural rubber (NR) products has led to major challenges in waste management. In this study, the degradation of rubber latex gloves in a mineral salt medium (MSM) using a bacterial consortium, a mixed culture of the selected bacteria and a pure culture were studied. The highest 18% weight loss of the rubber gloves were detected after incubated with the mixed culture. The increased viable cell counts over incubation time indicated that cells used rubber gloves as sole carbon source leading to the degradation of the polymer. The growth behavior of NR-degrading bacteria on the latex gloves surface was investigated using the scanning electron microscope (SEM). The occurrence of the aldehyde groups in the degradation products was observed by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy analysis. Rhodococcus pyridinivorans strain F5 gave the highest weight loss of rubber gloves among the isolated strain and posses latex clearing protein encoded by lcp gene. The mixed culture of the selected strains showed the potential in degrading rubber within 30 days and is considered to be used efficiently for rubber product degradation. This is the first report to demonstrate a strong ability to degrade rubber by Rhodococcus pyridinivorans.
天然橡胶（NR）产品产量的不断增加给废物管理带来了重大挑战。在本研究中，研究了使用细菌联合体、所选细菌的混合培养物和纯培养物在矿物盐培养基（MSM）中对橡胶乳胶手套的降解情况。与混合培养物孵育后，检测到橡胶手套的最高失重为18%。随着孵育时间的延长，活细胞数量增加，表明细胞将橡胶手套作为唯一碳源，导致聚合物降解。使用扫描电子显微镜（SEM）研究了NR降解细菌在乳胶手套表面的生长行为。通过傅里叶变换红外光谱分析观察了降解产物中醛基的出现。在分离出的菌株中，嗜吡啶红球菌F5菌株使橡胶手套的失重最高，并且拥有由lcp基因编码的乳胶清除蛋白。所选菌株的混合培养物显示出在30天内降解橡胶的潜力，被认为可有效地用于橡胶产品的降解。这是第一份证明嗜吡啶红球菌具有强大橡胶降解能力的报告。
