Abstract
Degradation of Petroleum-plastics like Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) is a budding challenge due to increasing white pollution. The present investigation has focused the aspect through microbial assisted biodegradation. Various indigenous microorganisms were isolated from collected municipal landfill soil. Growth medium enriched with 0.2 g of LDPE powder was used to screen the soil bacteria with biodegradation potential. The screened bacteria were subjected to biodegradation assay in presence of LDPE sheets in growth medium. Four strains gave 5%, 17.8%, 0.9% and 0.6% degradation rate based on weight loss in the conducted in vitro assay for four days. The maximum degraded sheet was analyzed through Scanning Electron Microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and Thermogravimetry, taking undegraded LDPE sheet as control. Results illustrated one-step weight loss with control and three-step weight loss with test. Thus, it proved the efficacy of isolated strain. The strain identification was carried out by genomic DNA isolation followed by PCR and 16S rRNA sequencing. Genotypic identification revealed the bacterium as Pseudomonas citronellolis. BLAST gave a similarity with the database of 96%, thus phylogenetic assessment clarified the bacterium as a novel strain. The isolate was named as Pseudomonas citronellolis EMBS027 and sequence was deposited as LDPE degrading species, in GenBank with accession number KF361478.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/2193-1801-3-497) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Petroleum plastics are the non-biodegradable synthetic polymers that accumulate at the rate of 25 million per year, contaminating the soil and water (Eubeler et al 2010)
Sample collection and screening of Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) degrading bacteria The soil sample was collected from Municipal Landfill in Indore. 50 ml of 0.85% saline was prepared and autoclaved, to which 0.1 g collected soil was added in sterile conditions
In vitro biodegradation assay 100 ml of growth medium in different flasks was inoculated with the individual obtained bacterial culture and weighed LDPE sheet pieces were placed in each
Summary
Petroleum plastics are the non-biodegradable synthetic polymers that accumulate at the rate of 25 million per year, contaminating the soil and water (Eubeler et al 2010). 1% of the prepared inoculum was transferred to 100 ml of biodegradation medium to isolate the LDPE degrading bacteria and was kept for incubation at 37°C, 200 rpm for 16 to 18 hours.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
