Oil eating microbes reshape droplets to optimize biodegradation

Phys.org  August 18, 2023 Certain marine bacteria can degrade small-molecule hydrocarbons, but there is still limited understanding on how this process works in biofilms. An international team of researchers (Japan, France, UK) showed that Alcanivorax borkumensis initially formed a spherical biofilm around a droplet of hexadecane, which grew and buckled. This transition was caused by an initial limited interaction with the oil by only some of the cells, followed by rapid cell growth and division that distorts the shape of the biofilm, leading to an increase in the surface area and acceleration in the rate of consumption. They identified a […]

A new species of darkling beetle larvae that degrade plastic

Science Daily  July 20, 2020 Researchers in South Korea found that the larvae of a darkling beetle P. davidis indigenous to East Asia, including the Korean peninsula, can consume polystyrene and reduce both its mass and molecular weight. They confirmed that the proportion of Serratia bacillus in the intestinal tract of P. davidis larvae was responsible for six-fold increase in biodegradation. It was found that the gut flora of this larvae consisted of a very simple group of bacterial species unlike the gut flora of other conventional polystyrene-degrading insects. According to the researchers if we replicate the simple gut floral […]