Bioengineering of microbial systems to remediate plastic pollutants

微生物系统生物工程修复塑料污染物

• 批准号: 562919-2021
• 负责人: Tharmalingam, Sujeenthar
• 金额: $ 2.19万
• 依托单位: Laurentian University of Sudbury
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Alliance Grants
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2021-01-01 至 2022-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=722110
• 关键词: Bioengineering; microbial; systems; remediate; plastic

Plastic waste has reached epidemic proportions worldwide. In Canada, approximately 90 per cent of the plastic ends up in landfills or the environment, including the lakes and oceans. The increasing accumulation of plastic waste in the environment has had numerous detrimental impacts on the ecosystem. Moreover, the detrimental effects of microplastics in aquatic environments and their toxicological implications for the Canadian fishing industry in terms of human health and financial loss have been well documented. Recent literature suggests that certain microbes are capable of biodegrading plastic constituents. However, microbial plastic biodegradation is still quite slow, and not sustainable for industrial-scale bioremediation usage. Therefore, the overall goal of this partnership is to bioengineer microbial strains capable of robust plastic bioremediation as a novel solution for the management of plastic waste. In particular, this partnership aims to utilize modern molecular tools to characterize the molecular pathways underlying the natural ability of microbes to degrade and decontaminate plastic constituents. In this study, methods to augment these naturally-occurring plastic degradation molecular pathways will be assessed to develop microbial-based solutions for plastic waste management. Therefore, the goals of this specific NSERC Alliance grant is to develop two novel microbial-based solutions for plastic waste management: (1) a custom-tailored nutrient supplementation to selectively promote microbial plastic metabolism, and (2) the genetic engineering of microbial strains with superior plastic degradation characteristics. This study will lay the foundation for biotechnological processes that will provide a clean, cost-effective, and sustainable bioremediation strategy to combat environmental plastic waste pollution.

塑料垃圾在全球范围内已达到流行的程度。在加拿大，大约 90% 的塑料最终进入垃圾填埋场或环境，包括湖泊和海洋。环境中塑料废物的不断积累对生态系统产生了许多有害影响。此外，微塑料对水生环境的有害影响及其对加拿大渔业在人类健康和经济损失方面的毒理学影响已得到充分记录。最近的文献表明某些微生物能够生物降解塑料成分。然而，微生物塑料的生物降解仍然相当缓慢，并且不可持续用于工业规模的生物修复。因此，这一合作伙伴关系的总体目标是通过生物工程改造能够进行强大塑料生物修复的微生物菌株，作为塑料废物管理的新型解决方案。特别是，这种伙伴关系旨在利用现代分子工具来表征微生物降解和净化塑料成分的自然能力的分子途径。在这项研究中，将评估增强这些自然发生的塑料降解分子途径的方法，以开发基于微生物的塑料废物管理解决方案。因此，NSERC 联盟这项具体拨款的目标是开发两种新型的基于微生物的塑料废物管理解决方案：(1) 定制的营养补充剂，以选择性地促进微生物塑料代谢，以及 (2) 微生物菌株的基因工程具有优异的塑料降解特性。这项研究将为生物技术过程奠定基础，为对抗环境塑料废物污染提供清洁、经济高效且可持续的生物修复策略。