ArticleNature chemical biology2025
Degradable living plastics programmed by engineered spores.
Article in Nature chemical biology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed.
- Tackling the global plastic pollution crisis.National science review · 2026Review
- Recent advances in designing high-performance and enzymatically degradable plastics.Chemical science · 2026Review
- Tailored living mycelium macerate for reproducible flexible actuators.Nature communications · 2026Article
- A programmable fungal platform for engineered living textiles.Science advances · 2026Article
- Polymer chemistry at the living-material interface.Chemical science · 2026Review
- Spore-Forming Probiotic-Embedded Biomaterials for Targeted Gut Microplastic Biodegradation.ACS pharmacology & translational science · 2026Review
- 3D-Bioprinted Marine Bacteria for the Degradation of Polyhydroxybutyrate Bioplastics.ACS applied polymer materials · 2026Article
- Bacterially grown living materials with resistant and on-demand functionality.Science advances · 2025Article
- UV-Triggered Cascading Degradation of Silicone Elastomer via Self-Fluoride Amplification.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- Enzyme-Embedded Biodegradable Plastic for Sustainable Applications: Advances, Challenges, and Perspectives.ACS applied bio materials · 2025Review
- Programming Aliphatic Polyester Degradation by Engineered Bacterial Spores.Biomacromolecules · 2025Article
- Living plastics from plasticizer-assisted thermal molding of silk protein.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Exploring biodegradable alternatives: microorganism-mediated plastic degradation and environmental policies for sustainable plastic management.Archives of microbiology · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
15 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Plastics are widely used materials that pose an ecological challenge because their wastes are difficult to degrade. Embedding enzymes and biomachinery within polymers could enable the biodegradation and disposal of plastics. However, enzymes rarely function under conditions suitable for polymer processing. Here, we report degradable living plastics by harnessing synthetic biology and polymer engineering. We engineered Bacillus subtilis spores harboring the gene circuit for the xylose-inducible secretory expression of Burkholderia cepacia lipase (BC-lipase). The spores that were resilient to stresses during material processing were mixed with poly(caprolactone) to produce living plastics in various formats. Spore incorporation did not compromise the physical properties of the materials. Spore recovery was triggered by eroding the plastic surface, after which the BC-lipase released by the germinated cells caused near-complete depolymerization of the polymer matrix. This study showcases a method for fabricating green plastics that can function when the spores are latent and decay when the spores are activated and sheds light on the development of materials for sustainability.
Indexed as
Identifiers
39169270What OpenQuestion holds
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.