The upside of finding an organism that could degrade or eliminate plastic cannot be overstated. Let's start with the fact that global plastic production is expected to triple by 2060 and that we already have vast quantities already accumulating in our oceans. The North Pacific Subtropical Gyre alone consists of 80 million kilograms of floating plastic.
In the face of this mounting environmental crisis, we have a groundbreaking discovery. A team of researchers has untapped a remarkable ability within the wonderfully named marine fungus Parengyodontium album. (P. album!) which possesses the remarkable ability to degrade polyethylene!
It doesn't end there, though.
The study reveals an intriguing dynamic in the biodegradation of marine plastic litter. The researchers started with what they could observe already happening in the epicenters of plastic pollution in the North Pacific Ocean. Specifically, they collected samples from the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, which contains a vast amount of floating plastic debris. They then isolated and cultivated different microorganisms, including the marine fungus P. album, from these samples. The researchers tested the ability of these microorganisms to degrade different types of plastics.
This is when they discovered and quantify the ability to degrade polyethylene. The researchers observed that P. album breaks down polyethylene at a rate of approximately 0.05% per day, converting most of the carbon into carbon dioxide, which the fungus subsequently excretes. While carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, this process does not pose a new environmental concern, as the amount released is comparable to the low levels humans exhale during breathing.
However, a crucial finding emerged: the presence of sunlight is essential for P. album to utilize polyethylene as an energy source. This means that as a vast amount of plastic sinks into deeper oceanic layers before being exposed to sunlight, it cannot be broken down. As a possible solution to this aspect of the problem, the team hypothesizes that other, yet undiscovered, fungi may be contributing to plastic degradation in the deeper regions of the ocean.
"Marine fungi can break down complex materials made of carbon. There are numerous amounts of marine fungi, so it is likely that in addition to the four species identified so far, other species also contribute to plastic degradation. There are still many questions about the dynamics of how plastic degradation takes place in deeper layers…"
-Lead author Annika Vaksmaa
There’s so much that is great about this finding. The power of fungus, the great name of the fungus, P. album, and the diversity and power inherent in marine fungi that we haven’t even discovered or unleashed.