Biodeterioration of Microplastics by Bacteria Isolated from Mangrove Sediment.

As a kind of ubiquitous emerging pollutant, microplastics (MPs) are persistent in the environment and have a large impact on the ecosystem. Fortunately, some microorganisms in the natural environment can degrade these persistent MPs without creating secondary pollution. In this study, 11 different MPs were selected as carbon sources to screen the microorganisms for degradable MPs and explore the possible mechanism of degradation. After repeated domestication, a relatively stable microbial community was obtained after approximately 30 days later. At this time, the biomass of the medium ranged from 88 to 699 mg/L. The growth of bacteria with different MPs ranged from 0.030 to 0.090 optical density (OD) 600 of the first generation to 0.009-0.081 OD 600 of the third generation. The weight loss method was used to determine the biodegradation ratios of different MPs. The mass losses of polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB), polyethylene (PE), and polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) were relatively large, at 13.4%, 13.0%, and 12.7%, respectively; these figures for polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polystyrene (PS) were relatively slight, 8.90% and 9.10%, respectively. The degradation half-life (t