ArticleNature communications2022
Wax worm saliva and the enzymes therein are the key to polyethylene degradation by Galleria mellonella.
Article in Nature communications, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 58 papers.
What it found
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
58 citing papers in PubMed, 194 citations in OpenAlex.
- Article
- Review
- RNA-seq dataset of superworm (Data in brief · 2026Article
- Predicting the plastic biodegradation potential within microbial lineages and across global ecosystems.Microbial genomics · 2026Article
- Transcriptomic analyses of labial glands and gut tissue from two wax moths, Achroia grisella and Galleria mellonella.G3 (Bethesda, Md.) · 2026Article
- Plastic Diets Drive Microbiome and Metabolic Reprogramming in Wax Moth Larvae (Achroia grisella).Archives of insect biochemistry and physiology · 2026Article
- Integrative frameworks for plastic biodegradation in insect-microbiome systems: mechanistic insights, emerging multi-omics and enzyme engineering perspectives.Biodegradation · 2026Review
- Review
- Acinetobacter bacteria could be potent degraders of fragmented polyethylene and polypropylene among the digestive tract bacteria of Galleria waxworms.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- PiggyBac-mediated transgenesis and CRISPR-Cas9 knockout in the greater wax moth, Galleria mellonella.Lab animal · 2026Article
- Recent advances in techniques for microplastic detection, microbial biodegradation and its genomic insights: a review.Biodegradation · 2026Review
- Whole-genome assembly and annotation of the bumblebee wax moth, Aphomia sociella.G3 (Bethesda, Md.) · 2026Article
- A high throughput assay to detect enzymatic polyethylene oxidation.Biochemical engineering journal · 2026Article
- Kinetics and Potential Mechanisms of LDPE and PBAT Microplastics Biodeterioration by Soil BacteriaMicroorganisms · 2026Article
- Article
- Microbial plastic degradation: enzymes, pathways, challenges, and perspectives.Microbiology and molecular biology reviews : MMBR · 2025Review
- Degradable Alternatives to Single-Use Plastics: Mechanisms, Materials, and Strategies for Sustainable Polyolefin Replacement.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Microplastics in human body: accumulation, natural clearance, and biomedical detoxification strategies.Biomedical engineering letters · 2025Review
- A comprehensive review on microbial degradation of polyethylene plastics: ecotoxicity, deterioration process, recurrent intermediates and key enzymes involved.Archives of microbiology · 2025Review
- Characterising the Multiple-Plastic Degrading Strain of Bacillus subtilis GM_03 From the Galleria mellonella Microbiome.Environmental microbiology reports · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
18 authors at 6 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Plastic degradation by biological systems with re-utilization of the by-products could be a future solution to the global threat of plastic waste accumulation. Here, we report that the saliva of Galleria mellonella larvae (wax worms) is capable of oxidizing and depolymerizing polyethylene (PE), one of the most produced and sturdy polyolefin-derived plastics. This effect is achieved after a few hours' exposure at room temperature under physiological conditions (neutral pH). The wax worm saliva can overcome the bottleneck step in PE biodegradation, namely the initial oxidation step. Within the saliva, we identify two enzymes, belonging to the phenol oxidase family, that can reproduce the same effect. To the best of our knowledge, these enzymes are the first animal enzymes with this capability, opening the way to potential solutions for plastic waste management through bio-recycling/up-cycling.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.