Nano- and microplastic particles steadily accumulate in the marine environment. For the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, more than 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic with an estimated weight of 80.000 tons have so far accumulated and with no end in sight. Furthermore, man-made polymers can now be found in our food chain and it is not clear whether uptake with the daily nutrition can be harmful. Therefore, removal of (micro-) plastics from the marine environment and decreasing further microplastic pollution is a major and very urgent challenge for our society. While the removal is far from being a trivial task, it offers, at the same time, the opportunity for the development of novel, bio-based technologies and innovative bioprocesses. Our main goals (Erik Borchert) within the PLASTISEA consortium are the delivery of novel enzymes and microorganisms for the development of original and innovative strategies for the removal of synthetic polymers (micro- and nanoparticles) from the marine environment.
Marine microbes are an important resource for bioactive compounds and biocatalysts with tremendous possibilities, e.g. for application for health and biotechnology. In the ecological context, bioactive compounds have functions in cellular communication, signaling, and in the defense against predators and pathogens. Therefore, they may play a significant role in shaping interactions and forming the structure of marine communities. Biocatalysts, on the other hand, help microbes to access otherwise hidden nutritional sources or to catalyze chemical reactions normally unfavorable under the given environmental conditions (high pressure in the deep sea, low temperatures, high salt concentrations, etc.). The treasure trove of marine microbial biodiversity is largely unexplored (Dr. Jutta Wiese) but could help us in addressing urging societal challenges like extensive waste production and plastic pollution. Present and future research focus on marine microbial and chemical biodiversity to investigate their role and function in the marine environment. Additionally, we aim for transferring this knowledge into biotechnological applications for healthcare, food industry, and waste management.
press release:
https://www.geomar.de/en/news/article/in-der-gemeinschaft-sind-bakterien-stark-gegen-plastik
Dr. Erik Borchert, Dr. Jutta Wiese, Onur Turak, Denisse Carolina Galarza-Verkovitch, Vincent Richter, Maelle Zonnequin, Emmanuel Tora
Tora D, Hentschel U, Lips S, Schmitt-Jansen M, Borchert E (2023) 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis of the microbial community on microplastic samples from the North Atlantic and Great Pacific Garbage Patches. Afr J Microbiol Res 17(5):123-138. doi: doi.org/10.5897/AJMR2022.9682
Galarza-Verkovitch D, Turak O, Wiese J, Rahn T, Hentschel U, Borchert E (2023) Bioprospecting for polyesterase activty relevant for PET degradation in marine Enterobacterales isolates. AIMS Microbiology 9(3):518-539, doi: 10.3934/microbiol.2023027
Borchert E, Chow J, Hentschel U, Streit, WR (2022) Marine Mikroorganismen für den Plastikabbau. Biospektrum 28, 594–596. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12268-022-1848-9
Borchert E, Hammerschmidt K, Hentschel U and Deines P (2021) Enhancing Microbial Pollutant Degradation by Integrating Eco-Evolutionary Principles with Environmental Biotechnology. Trends Microbiol., https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tim.2021.03.002
Borchert E, Garcia-Moyano A, Sanchez-Carrillo S, Dahlgren TG, Slaby BM, Bjerga GEK, Ferrer M, Franzenburg S, Hentschel U (2021) Deciphering a marine bone degrading microbiome reveals a complex community effort. mSystems 6(1): e01218-20. Published online 2021 Feb 9. doi: 10.1128/mSystems.01218-20
Borchert E, Jackson SA, O'Gara F, Dobson AD (2016) Diversity of natural product biosynthetic genes in the microbiome of the deep-sea sponges Inflatella pellicula, Poecillastra compressa, and Stelletta normani. Front. Microbiol., 7:1027.
Borchert E, Knobloch S, Dwyer E, O’Flynn S, Jackson SA, Jóhannsson R, Marteinsson VT, O’Gara F, Dobson ADW (2017) Biotechnological potential of cold adapted Pseudoalteromonas spp. isolated from ‘deep sea’ sponges. Mar. Drugs, 15, 184.
Harvesting the Marine Plastisphere for Novel and Innovative Biotechnology Concepts
New tools for prospecting the marine bone-degrading microbiome for new enzymes
