Radical innovation breakthroughs of biodegradation of plastics by insects: history, present and future perspectives

作者：Shan-Shan Yang, Wei‐Min Wu, Federica Bertocchini, M. Eric Benbow, Suja Purushothaman Devipriya, Hyung Joon Chi, Bo-Yu Peng, Mengqi Ding, Lei He, Mei-Xi Li, Chen-Hao Cui, Shao-Nan Shi, Han-Jun Sun, Ji-Wei Pang, Defu He, Yalei Zhang, Jun Yang, Deyi Hou, Defeng Xing, Nanqi Ren, Jie Ding, Craig S. Criddle · 发表于：Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1007/s11783-024-1838-x · 被引用次数：61 · 研究领域：Microplastics and Plastic Pollution、Sustainable Supply Chain Management、Chemistry and Chemical Engineering

Abstract Insects damaging and penetrating plastic packaged materials has been reported since the 1950s. Radical innovation breakthroughs of plastic biodegradation have been initiated since the discovery of biodegradation of plastics by Tenebrio molitor larvae in 2015 followed by Galleria mellonella in 2017. Here we review updated studies on the insect-mediated biodegradation of plastics. Plastic biodegradation by insect larvae, mainly by some species of darkling beetles (Tenebrionidae) and pyralid moths (Pyralidae) is currently a highly active and potentially transformative area of research. Over the past eight years, publications have increased explosively, including discoveries of the ability of different insect species to biodegrade plastics, biodegradation performance, and the contribution of host and microbiomes, impacts of polymer types and their physic-chemical properties, and responsible enzymes secreted by the host and gut microbes. To date, almost all major plastics including polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyurethane (PUR), and polystyrene (PS) can be biodegraded by T. molitor and ten other insect species representing the Tenebrionidae and Pyralidae families. The biodegradation processes are symbiotic reactions or performed by synergistic efforts of both host and gut-microbes to rapidly depolymerize and biodegrade plastics with hourly half-lives. The digestive ezymens and bioreagents screted by th...