Putative degraders of low-density polyethylene-derived compounds are ubiquitous members of plastic-associated bacterial communities in the marine environment.

ABSTRACT: It remains unknown whether and to what extent marine prokaryotic communities are capable of degrading plastic in the ocean. To address this knowledge gap, we combined enrichment experiments employing low-density polyethylene (LDPE) as the sole carbon source with a comparison of bacterial communities on plastic debris in the Pacific, the North Atlantic and the northern Adriatic Sea. A total of 35 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were enriched in the LDPE-laboratory incubations after 1 year, of which 20 were present with relative abundances > 0.5% in at least one plastic sample collected from the environment. From these, OTUs classified as Cognatiyoonia, Psychrobacter, Roseovarius and Roseobacter were found in the communities of plastics collected at all oceanic sites. Additionally, OTUs c

SUBMITTER: Pinto M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7702132 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature