Resembling giant mealworms, superworms (Zophobas atratus) are beetle larvae that are often sold in pet stores as feed for reptiles, fish and birds. In addition to their relatively large size (about 2 inches long), these worms have another superpower: They can degrade polystyrene plastic. Now, researchers reporting in ACS' Environmental Science & Technology have linked this ability to a strain of bacteria that lives in the larvae's gut.
[...] The team placed 50 superworms in a chamber with polystyrene as their only carbon source, and after 21 days, the worms had consumed about 70% of the plastic. The researchers then isolated a strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria from the gut of the worms and showed that it that could grow directly on the surface of polystyrene and break it down. Finally, they identified an enzyme from the bacteria, called serine hydrolase, that appeared to be responsible for most of the biodegradation.
Journal Reference:
Hong Rae Kim et al. Biodegradation of Polystyrene by Pseudomonas sp. Isolated from the Gut of Superworms (Larvae of Zophobas atratus), Environmental Science & Technology (DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.0c01495)
Feed the plastic grocery bags to the worms, then feed the worms to the seagulls.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28 2020, @08:29AM (3 children)
In case someone wonders, 2 grams of plastic were supplied to the 50 worms.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28 2020, @10:52AM
I think Mother Nature is quite able to offer enough
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28 2020, @11:14AM
Sounds like the worms need some genetic modification...before I can add polystyrene to my compost pile.
(Score: 2) by coolgopher on Thursday May 28 2020, @01:39PM
If only they could replicate it with locusts instead of worms.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28 2020, @10:36AM (1 child)
>> The team placed 50 superworms in a chamber with polystyrene as their only carbon source
If PETA finds out about this, they're going to put those researchers in a chamber with polystyrene as their only carbon source.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28 2020, @11:10AM
Why does PETA hate plastic lifeforms?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28 2020, @10:48AM (3 children)
Larvae of various species of pyralid moths, for one example, is well known to eat plastics. In lab:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2017.02.060 [doi.org]
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25384056/ [nih.gov]
And in kitchen:
http://npic.orst.edu/pest/pantrymoth.html [orst.edu]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28 2020, @01:43PM (1 child)
As to the pantry moths there is a difference between chewing through plastic to get at food and digesting plastic AS food.
The worms in this article are said to be doing the latter, there is no evidence provided that pantry moths do anything but the former.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28 2020, @03:33PM
Behold, the lowly Plodia interpunctella aka Indian mealmoth digesting the stuff: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/es504038a [acs.org]
Same as their relatives in the Pyralidae family.
BTW, mealworms do digest plastics too: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29763555/ [nih.gov]
Being beetle larvae like in TFA, but different family.
Looks increasingly like the capability is nothing rare, just ignored by scientists before.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday May 28 2020, @05:27PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 4, Insightful) by richtopia on Thursday May 28 2020, @04:16PM (1 child)
Sorry to nitpick on the submitter's comment, but plastic bags are made of High-Density Polyethylene. Polystyrene is different, I think it is the 3rd or 4th most popular plastic in the world (depending on how you count).
So these worms are going to eat the foam takeout boxes before being eaten by seagulls. Plastic bags will continue to live on.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2020, @03:59AM
The thread just above; three species of pyralid moths, and one species of beetles, all digesting both polyethylene (easier if anything) and polystyrene.
Which should be totally unsurprising to anyone with school knowledge of chemistry and biology: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wax [wikipedia.org]
Somehow the Worrying About Environment (tm) always coincides with appalling ignorance of the very sciences that describe workings of said environment. I wonder why.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Megahard on Thursday May 28 2020, @05:31PM
It's a stick!
No, it's a piece of ***!
No, it's SUPERWORM!!!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by corey on Thursday May 28 2020, @09:38PM (2 children)
It disappoints me how back when polystyrene was invented and decisions were made to use it for consumer packaging, that those who made the decisions had completely and willingly ignored the disposal issue. Obviously it's an externalised cost.
"Let's invent this new material, quickly get it to market, sell sell sell, profit, profit. Nobody ask about the cleanup or where it'll all end up."
Only now we're trying to fix the mess. I mean, researchers spending time and funding trying to figure out how to de-plastic our world after all the fat rich execs profited off its invention and production years ago. We need to change this model and force companies to include disposal in their product cost, and force them to deal with it. Like the EU were doing with ewaste. Or find those execs and ping their retirement funds to fund the research and cleanup efforts.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2020, @04:12AM
Fat rich execs hire lean cheap journalists to invent horror stories about imagined dangers. Fat ignorant consumers gobble it up hook line and sinker, and run in circles and bleat for their masters to make them poor to save them from the bogeymen in their TV sets. Guess who are laughing all the way to the bank.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday May 29 2020, @02:12PM
I agree with you that companies that use plastics should be responsible for the lifecycle of the material (it should be true for all materials, actually, but let's stick with plastics for the moment).
Amid the bandwagon rush to demonize plastics, though, we should consider why plastics became so ubiquitous: they work, and work well. They have many advantages over glass, ceramic, metal, wood, and other "natural" materials. Getting rid of plastics to use more of the other materials would only shift the energy inputs to them, with sub-optimal outcomes.
The persistence of plastic in the environment is a problem because it's unsightly, but even if creatures don't learn to digest it it will be mechanically reduced to particles eventually. Life will continue.
Washington DC delenda est.