Radical innovation breakthroughs of biodegradation of plastics by insects: history, present and future perspectives

Highlights

● Insect damaging and penetrating plastic materials has been observed since 1950s.

● Biodegradation of plastics by insects has become hot research frontiers.

● All major plastics can be biodegraded with half-live on hourly basis.

● The biodegradation is performed by the insect hosts together with gut microbiota.

● Future perspectives focus on biodegradation mechanisms and potential applications.

Abstract

Insects damaging and penetrating plastic packaged materials has been reported since the 1950s. Radical innovation breakthroughs of plastic biodegradation have been initiated since the discovery of biodegradation of plastics by Tenebrio molitor larvae in 2015 followed by Galleria mellonella in 2017. Here we review updated studies on the insect-mediated biodegradation of plastics. Plastic biodegradation by insect larvae, mainly by some species of darkling beetles (Tenebrionidae) and pyralid moths (Pyralidae) is currently a highly active and potentially transformative area of research. Over the past eight years, publications have increased explosively, including discoveries of the ability of different insect species to biodegrade plastics, biodegradation performance, and the contribution of host and microbiomes, impacts of polymer types and their physic-chemical properties, and responsible enzymes secreted by the host and gut microbes. To date, almost all major plastics including polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyurethane (PUR), and polystyrene (PS) can be biodegraded by T. molitor and ten other insect species representing the Tenebrionidae and Pyralidae families. The biodegradation processes are symbiotic reactions or performed by synergistic efforts of both host and gut-microbes to rapidly depolymerize and biodegrade plastics with hourly half-lives. The digestive ezymens and bioreagents screted by the insects play an essential role in plasatic biodegradation in certain species of Tenebrionidae and Pyralidae families. New research on the insect itself, gut microbiomes, transcriptomes, proteomes and metabolomes has evaluated the mechanisms of plastic biodegradation in insects. We conclude this review by discussing future research perspectives on insect-mediated biodegradation of plastics.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Plastics / Biodegradation / Insects / Gut microbiomes / Enzymes

Dr. Wei-Min Wu is a Senior Researcher at Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, William & Cloy Codiga Resource Recovery Center. He graduated from Harbin Architectural & Civil Engineering Institute, China in 1976, received Master from Tsinghua University, China in 1984, and Ph.D. degree from Michigan State University, USA in 1991. He worked as Research Engineer from 1992 to 2001, and Manager for Asia-Pacific Business Development from 1998 to 2001 at Michigan Biotechnology Institute. He has hold Professional Engineer license of State of Michigan since 1994. Dr. Wu’s research interests are in the area of environmental biotechnology including the bioremediation of organic toxicants and heavy metals in contaminated groundwater and sediments, the anaerobic digestion of solid wastes and wastewaters for energy recovery, wastewater treatment and reclamation, microbial ecology and biodegradable plastics. Recently, he focuses on biodegradation of petroleum-based plastics and plastic pollution, especially microplastics and nanoplastics in environments. He has more than 200 peer-reviewed publications with H-index of 70, and serviced as reviewer for more than 60 academic journals

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52170131) and the Woods Institute for Environment at Stanford University (USA) (Award 1197667-10-WTAZB) for supports. The authors thank Ms. Andria T. Wu, DePaul University (USA), for help in manuscript preparation, Professor Zhili He, Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai) (China) for valuable comments and suggestions. We acknowledge the use of data from publications by Dr. A.M. Brandon and Professor R.M. Waymouth, Stanford University (USA); Dr. Y. Yang, Beihang University (China); Mr. J. Receveur, Michigan State University (USA); and Ms. L.Yang, Dr. J. Gao and Professor X. L. Zhuang, Chinese Academy of Sciences (China). The authors appreciate the gift images of Tribolium castaneum larvae by Dr. Z. Wang and Professor Y. L. Zhang, North-west A&F University (China).

Conflict of Interests

Wei-Min Wu is an editorial board member of Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering. The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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