{"id":156657,"date":"2025-01-21T07:15:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-21T06:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=156657"},"modified":"2025-01-16T15:36:38","modified_gmt":"2025-01-16T14:36:38","slug":"removing-microplastics-with-engineered-bacteria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/removing-microplastics-with-engineered-bacteria\/","title":{"rendered":"Removing microplastics with engineered bacteria"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"572\" src=\"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2025\/01\/Bildschirmfoto-2025-01-15-um-14.34.17-1024x572.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-156660\" style=\"width:650px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2025\/01\/Bildschirmfoto-2025-01-15-um-14.34.17-1024x572.png 1024w, https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2025\/01\/Bildschirmfoto-2025-01-15-um-14.34.17-300x168.png 300w, https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2025\/01\/Bildschirmfoto-2025-01-15-um-14.34.17-150x84.png 150w, https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2025\/01\/Bildschirmfoto-2025-01-15-um-14.34.17-768x429.png 768w, https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2025\/01\/Bildschirmfoto-2025-01-15-um-14.34.17-1536x859.png 1536w, https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2025\/01\/Bildschirmfoto-2025-01-15-um-14.34.17-2048x1145.png 2048w, https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2025\/01\/Bildschirmfoto-2025-01-15-um-14.34.17-400x224.png 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><strong>\u00a9<\/strong> University of Waterloo<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p><strong>Microplastics can go right through wastewater treatment plants, and researchers have engineered bacteria commonly found in there to break down this pollution before it can persist in the environment.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Researchers from the University of Waterloo added DNA to several species of bacteria found in wastewater, allowing them to biodegrade polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a common plastic found in carpet, clothing and containers for food and beverages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>PET plastics take hundreds of years to degrade in the environment. Over time, they break down into microplastics, pieces of plastic less than 5 mm long, which enter the food chain. Chemicals in these plastics are associated with insulin resistance, cancer and decreased reproductive health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cThink of these bacteria that already exist in water systems to clean up microplastics as biorobots that can be programmed to get the job done,\u201d said <strong>Dr. Marc Aucoin, a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering.<\/strong> \u201cMicroplastics in water also enhance the spread of antibiotic resistance, so this breakthrough could also address that concern.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>The researchers use a natural process referred to as \u201cbacterial sex,\u201d where bacteria share genetic material with each other when multiplying. It enables the introduction of a new trait into the target bacteria, giving them the ability to break down microplastics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"BorlabsCookie _brlbs-cb-youtube\"><div class=\"_brlbs-content-blocker\"> <div class=\"_brlbs-embed _brlbs-video-youtube\"> <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"_brlbs-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-content\/plugins\/borlabs-cookie\/assets\/images\/cb-no-thumbnail.png\" alt=\"YouTube\"> <div class=\"_brlbs-caption\"> <p>By loading the video, you agree to YouTube&#8217;s privacy policy.<br><a href=\"https:\/\/policies.google.com\/privacy?hl=en&amp;gl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Learn more<\/a><\/p> <p><a class=\"_brlbs-btn _brlbs-icon-play-white\" href=\"#\" data-borlabs-cookie-unblock role=\"button\">Load video<\/a><\/p> <p><label><input type=\"checkbox\" name=\"unblockAll\" value=\"1\" checked> <small>Always unblock YouTube<\/small><\/label><\/p> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div><div class=\"borlabs-hide\" data-borlabs-cookie-type=\"content-blocker\" data-borlabs-cookie-id=\"youtube\"><script type=\"text\/template\">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<\/script><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Live-Cell imaging of horizontal gene transfer between E. coli in a microfluidic device. <strong>\u00a9<\/strong> University of Waterloo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>To demonstrate&nbsp;the gene-exchange technique to enable wastewater bacteria to degrade plastics, this&nbsp;video shows two types of bacteria in red and green. The video shows the red strain and the green strain of bacteria exchanging genetic material so that the green strain becomes capable of fluorescing yellow. The researchers used this same gene-exchange technique to enable wastewater bacteria to degrade plastics. (University of Waterloo)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cAs next steps, we will use modelling to understand how well the bacteria transfer the new genetic information under different environmental conditions and thus how effectively they can break down the plastics,\u201d said <strong>Dr. Brian Ingalls, a professor in the Department of Applied Mathematics<\/strong>. \u201cThe long-term vision is to break down microplastics in wastewater treatment plants at scale.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>While the researchers will start with wastewater facilities, they also hope to find ways to clean up the plastic waste accumulating in oceans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;We will assess the risks of using engineered, plastic-eating bacteria in the natural environment&#8221; said <strong>Aaron Yip, a PhD candidate in the Department of Chemical Engineering.<\/strong> &#8220;Right now, microplastic degradation in wastewater treatment plants is a safer application to target. Many of these facilities are already designed to neutralize bacteria in wastewater, which would kill any engineered bacteria prior to discharging water back into the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The study, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/full\/10.1111\/1751-7915.70015\">Degradation of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastics by wastewater bacteria engineered via conjugation<\/a>,&#8221;appears in&nbsp;<em>Microbial Biotechnology<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Microplastics can go right through wastewater treatment plants, and researchers have engineered bacteria commonly found in there to break down this pollution before it can persist in the environment. Researchers from the University of Waterloo added DNA to several species of bacteria found in wastewater, allowing them to biodegrade polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a common plastic [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":114,"featured_media":156660,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"Researchers altered bacteria found in wastewater treatment, where microplastics can enter environment","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[13383,10954,14007,11966,13535,24300],"supplier":[4690],"class_list":["post-156657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-bacteria","tag-microplastics","tag-pet","tag-plastics","tag-wastewater","tag-watertreatment","supplier-university-of-waterloo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/114"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156657"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=156657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}