Biodegradation of polystyrene and systems biology-based approaches to the development of new biocatalysts for plastic degradation

Abstract

Plastic waste has become one of the most pressing environmental issues with rapidly increased their production that also has a severe impact on individual species and ecosystem functioning.

With recycling technologies in place, the waste plastic will become a valuable resource and hence less material will be lost to the environment. In the pursuit of a sustainable approach to the treatment of plastic waste, biological processes have emerged as an eco-friendly method with significant potential. In this review, we summarize previous research on the biodegradation of polystyrene (PS) as major plastics, including a review of the analytical methods used to investigate the plastic biodegradation, the isolation of PS-degrading microbes from various environment, and the identification of potential enzymes for PS biodegradation. Based on this, we propose a potential PS biodegradation pathway, even though the specific biochemical mechanisms associated with certain enzymes have not yet been fully identified. Finally, we discuss how PS-biodegrading enzymes can be identified using a systems biology-based screening approach that combines culture-based genomic and culture-independent metagenomic methods. This strategy can be applied to searching biodegrading enzymes for other plastics.