Examining the Ability of Caulobacter crescentus and Sphingomonas sp. to Degrade Plastics

Abstract

Plastic pollution is one of the major problems faced all over the world. All living beings are severely affected by the accumulation of plastics in their habitats over the years. Natural decomposition of plastic takes a very long time to occur. Microbial biotechnology has the potential to deal with the plastic wastes in a sustainable manner. As a result, various types of bacteria have been identified from soil and other sources that are capable of decomposing plastic more quickly. Here, we considered the bacterial species Caulobacter crescentus and Sphingomonas sp. whose families are reported to be associated with plastic-degrading microbial environment in the studied research papers. These bacteria were inoculated in plastic-containing medium to examine their polymer breakdown properties.