ISSN: 0973-7510

E-ISSN: 2581-690X

Research Article | Open Access
Sonal Thakur1,2, Shivangi Mathur3 , Meenu Saraf1, Saumya Patel4, Ranjit Jadav1 and Sudeshna Menon2
1Department of Microbiology and Biotechnology, University School of Sciences, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.
2Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, St. Xavier’s College (Autonomous), Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.
3Department of Biotechnology, President Science College, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.
4Department of Botany, Climate Change and Bioinformatics, University School of Sciences, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.
Article Number: 10162 | © The Author(s). 2025
J Pure Appl Microbiol. 2025;19(2):1419-1433. https://doi.org/10.22207/JPAM.19.2.45
Received: 17 December 2024 | Accepted: 25 March 2025 | Published online: 02 June 2025
Issue online: June 2025
Abstract

Plastic pollution is a universal problem, and microbial management of plastic waste represents a promising area of biotechnological research. This study investigated the ability of bacterial strains which were isolated from landfill soil to degrade Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE). Strains obtained via serial dilution were screened for LDPE degradation on Minimal Essential Medium (MEM) with hexadecane. Nine isolates producing clearance zones on hexadecane-supplemented MEM were further tested for biofilm formation on LDPE sheets. High cell surface hydrophobicity isolates (>10%) were selected for detailed biodegradation studies. The C-8 bacterial isolate showed the highest LDPE weight loss (3.57%) and exhibited maximum laccase (0.0219 U/mL) and lipase activity (19 mm) among all bacterial isolates after 30 days. Weight loss was further validated by FTIR and SEM analysis. FTIR analysis revealed that in comparison to control, changes in peak were observed at 719 cm-1 (C-H bending), 875.67 cm-1 (C-C vibrations), 1307.07 cm-1 (C-O stretching), 1464.21 cm-1 (C-H bending), 2000-1650 cm-1 (C-H bending), 2849.85 cm-1 (C-H stretching) in microbial treated LDPE sheets. The treated LDPE also displayed increase in carbonyl index (upto 2.5 to 3 folds), double bond index (1 to 2-fold) and internal double bond index (2 to 2.5-fold) indicating oxidation and chain scission in the LDPE backbone. SEM analysis showed substantial micrometric surface damage on the LDPE film, with visible cracks and grooves. Using 16S rRNA gene sequencing, the C-8, C-11, C-15 and C-19 isolate were identified as Bacillus paramycoides, Micrococcus luteus, Bacillus siamensis and Lysinibacillus capsica, respectively.

Keywords

LDPE, Plastic Degrading Enzymes, Bioremediation of Plastic Waste, Biodegradation of LDPE

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© The Author(s) 2025. Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License which permits unrestricted use, sharing, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.