NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, the Netherlands.
Université de Paris, INSERM U1284, Center for Research and Interdisciplinarity (CRI), Paris, France.
Sci Total Environ. 2024 Jul 15;934:172819. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.172819. Epub 2024 Apr 26.
Plastic pollution in the marine realm is a severe environmental problem. Nevertheless, plastic may also serve as a potential carbon and energy source for microbes, yet the contribution of marine microbes, especially marine fungi to plastic degradation is not well constrained. We isolated the fungus Parengyodontium album from floating plastic debris in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre and measured fungal-mediated mineralization rates (conversion to CO) of polyethylene (PE) by applying stable isotope probing assays with C-PE over 9 days of incubation. When the PE was pretreated with UV light, the biodegradation rate of the initially added PE was 0.044 %/day. Furthermore, we traced the incorporation of PE-derived C carbon into P. album biomass using nanoSIMS and fatty acid analysis. Despite the high mineralization rate of the UV-treated C-PE, incorporation of PE-derived C into fungal cells was minor, and C incorporation was not detectable for the non-treated PE. Together, our results reveal the potential of P. album to degrade PE in the marine environment and to mineralize it to CO. However, the initial photodegradation of PE is crucial for P. album to metabolize the PE-derived carbon.
海洋环境中的塑料污染是一个严重的环境问题。然而，塑料也可能成为微生物潜在的碳和能源来源，但海洋微生物（尤其是海洋真菌）对塑料降解的贡献还没有得到很好的限制。我们从北太平洋亚热带回旋流中的漂浮塑料碎片中分离出真菌 Parengyodontium album，并通过应用稳定同位素探测法在 9 天的孵育期内用 C-PE 测量聚乙烯（PE）的真菌介导的矿化率（转化为 CO）。当 PE 用紫外线预处理时，最初添加的 PE 的生物降解率为 0.044%/天。此外，我们使用纳米 SIMS 和脂肪酸分析追踪了 PE 衍生 C 碳掺入 P. album 生物量的情况。尽管 UV 处理的 C-PE 具有很高的矿化率，但 PE 衍生 C 掺入真菌细胞的量很小，并且未处理的 PE 中无法检测到 C 掺入。总之，我们的结果表明 P. album 具有在海洋环境中降解 PE 并将其矿化为 CO 的潜力。然而，PE 的初始光降解对于 P. album 代谢 PE 衍生碳至关重要。
