Some Rare Good News for a Change in the Hurting World of Plastic and Chemical Intoxication of our Planet
#20 2024 The Rowen Report
Dear Subscriber,
I know that I’ve brought you some worrisome information in this Substack. I’ve repeatedly warned about the smothering of our planet and life forms with plastic. Absent some miraculous discovery of how to degrade this stuff in the environment, all life on earth faces a problematic future. Well, I have some positive news and must share it.
There is a worm called Zophobas atratus that shockingly can live on a diet of plastic. It has been my prayer that some bacteria might be found that would eagerly digest plastic molecules for their energy source. After all, all things in nature do degrade. Mold breaks down most everything given a chance. Just let your home get and stay wet. Plastic, however, is not nature made.
Well, bacteria in the gut of these worms are able to break down plastic, in a similar fashion to bacteria in the gut of a ruminant breaking down cellulose in plant material for the animal the subsequently digest. In this instant scenario, the bacteria in the worm’s digestive tract, its microbiome, breaks down otherwise toxic plastic.
Scientists took these unique bacteria from the worms’ gut and incubated them in a bath of synthetic nutrients and plastic for their food and energy source. The researchers subsequently found this artificial gut could digest plastic at a greater rate than in the worm itself.
This is exciting to me. To me, rather than building armaments of war, governments could and should search for ways to protect the earth, which is equivalent to protecting their peoples. I’d love to see a “Manhattan Project” on two fronts – fusion energy, and ridding the world of plastic pollution. In fact, the latter could be easily accomplished by imposing a “use” tax on plastic where the tax goes to fund the research and technology to decontaminate the planet.
Please enjoy,
Robert Jay Rowen, MD
'Super gut' made from superworm's microbiome devours problem plastics
February 08, 2024
Zophobas atratus worms can live on a diet of plastic, with their unique microbiome able to break down the material
The unique gut microbiome found within a tiny plastics-munching worm could potentially be harnessed to successfully break down problematic materials on a large scale.
Zophobas atratus worms – more accurately, the larvae of the darkling beetle – are popular insect snacks in many countries where they are often bred and sold for pet reptile food. But while they're known as superworms for their protein-rich nutritional value, their true superpower may be found in the makeup of their gut bacteria.
In this new study, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) researchers built on previous research into the microbiome of these hardy mealworms to construct a scalable copy of the organism's special gut environment, which they believe could be capable of sustainably processing a significant amount of common plastics.
While scientists have known of the worm's appetite for plastics for some time, the problem – as with a lot of biotechnology – is getting it suitable for real-world application. The team behind this 'super gut' may have cracked the code. And very few worms are harmed in the process.
“A single worm can only consume about a couple of milligrams of plastic in its lifetime, so imagine the number of worms that would be needed if we were to rely on them to process our plastic waste," said Cao Bin, associate professor at NTU. "Our method eliminates this need by removing the worm from the equation. We focus on boosting the useful microbes in the worm gut and building an artificial ‘worm gut’ that can efficiently break down plastics.”
The team began by feeding three sets of worms three different diets of common plastics – high-density polyethylene (HDPE), which is notoriously difficult to break down, polypropylene (PP) and polystyrene (PS) for 30 days. (A lucky control group was served oatmeal.)
The scientists then extracted the microbiomes from the plastic-munching worms' guts and incubated them in flasks filled with synthetic nutrients and the three plastics, letting them develop into an artificial gut over six weeks.
What they found was that the lab-grown guts, compared to the control group of worms, had developed far more plastic-degrading bacteria, and each showed superior efficiency with the specific material it had been fed on.
“Our study represents the first reported successful attempt to develop plastic-associated bacterial communities from gut microbiomes of plastic-fed worms," said first author of the study Dr Liu Yinan. "Through exposing the gut microbiomes to specific conditions, we were able to boost the abundance of plastic-degrading bacteria present in our artificial ‘worm gut,’ suggesting that our method is stable and replicable at scale.”
While proof of concept, the researchers don't see a barrier in being able to grow this artificial 'super gut' on a much larger scale and for it to be tailored to treat specific materials. They're now looking at the molecular biology behind the worm's hardy gut processes, hoping to more easily engineer bacterial communities that break down plastics for commercial use.
The study was published in the journal Environment International.
A ray of hope. Thanks for sharing this.
But watch out...what if this bacteria goes out on its own and starts eating all our plastic cables, pipes, infrastructure, components, appliances, etc. instead of what we want it to eat?