College of Resources and Environment, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai'an City, Shandong 271018, China.
College of Plant Protection, Shanxi Agricultural University, Taigu, Shanxi 030800, China.
J Hazard Mater. 2024 Sep 15;477:135381. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2024.135381. Epub 2024 Jul 30.
Recent studies have demonstrated superworms (larvae of Zophobas atratus) ability to degrade polyethylene (PE), polystyrene (PS), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and polypropylene (PP) within their digestive system. This study aimed to compare the ability of superworms to degrade the above four polyolefin plastics over a duration of 30 days. In this study, the degradation rate of PE was the highest, and the final average weight of superworms, as well as the final plastic mass loss consumed by them, significantly increased (73.38 % and 52.33 %, respectively) when PE was fed with wheat bran (1:1 [w/w]). FTIR and TGA indicated the occurrence of oxidation and biodegradation processes in the four polyolefin plastics when exposed to superworms. In addition, the molecular weights (Mw and Mn) of excreted polymer residues decreased by 3.1 % and 2.87 % in PE-fed superworms, suggesting that the depolymerization of PE was not entirely dependent on the gut microbial community. The analysis of the gut microbial communities revealed that the dominant microbial community were different for each type of plastic. The results indicate that the gut microbiome of superworms exhibited remarkable adaptability in degrading various types of plastics, and the intake preferences and efficiency of different plastics are associated with different dominant microbial community species.
最近的研究表明，超级黄粉虫（Zophobas atratus 幼虫）能够在其消化系统内降解聚乙烯（PE）、聚苯乙烯（PS）、聚氯乙烯（PVC）和聚丙烯（PP）。本研究旨在比较超级黄粉虫在 30 天内降解上述四种聚烯烃塑料的能力。在这项研究中，PE 的降解率最高，当以麦麸（1:1 [w/w]）作为饲料时，超级黄粉虫的最终平均体重以及最终消耗的塑料质量损失显著增加（分别为 73.38%和 52.33%）。FTIR 和 TGA 表明，当暴露于超级黄粉虫时，四种聚烯烃塑料发生了氧化和生物降解过程。此外，PE 喂养的超级黄粉虫排泄物中的聚合物残留物的分子量（Mw 和 Mn）分别降低了 3.1%和 2.87%，这表明 PE 的解聚并不完全依赖于肠道微生物群落。肠道微生物群落的分析表明，每种类型塑料的优势微生物群落不同。结果表明，超级黄粉虫的肠道微生物组在降解各种类型的塑料方面表现出了显著的适应性，不同塑料的摄入偏好和效率与不同的优势微生物群落物种有关。
