Fungal Degradation of Plastics: A Review
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.61704/pr.606Keywords:
Plastic Polymer, Biodegradation, Fungal Species, Fungal Enzymes, Assessment TechniquesAbstract
Plastics have been increasingly used to supplement or partially replace natural and traditional materials including paper, wood and in some uses, even metals because they are inexpensive, highly flexible, strong, and non-biodegradable. Increased production of plastic, worldwide distribution, and the lack of degradability resulted in plastic accumulations in the environment and pose serious environmental and biological health risks. Therefore, creating appropriate measures for the cleanup environment may be a top priority in our attention. Recently, breakdown of polymers by biological systems has attracted the interest of Numbers of researchers. Different fungal species are shown to be able to break down plastic polymers and use them as a carbon source. This feature is exploited as an environmentally friendly approach to manage plastic waste. Various fungal strains have been shown to be effective in this field, including Aspergillus flavus, Phanerochaete chrysosporium, Aspergillus niger, Fusarium sp., Mucor sp., Cephalosporium sp., and others. Biodegradation mechanisms of polymers include biodeterioration, followed by polymer fragmentation, microbial assimilation, and ultimately mineralization. This review highlights the type of plastics, the fungal role in degradation of plastic, the biodegradation process of plastic polymers, the environmental conditions that influence the biodegradation process of plastic polymers as well as the enzymes used by fungi in the biodegradation process of plastic polymers and other methods of measuring and analyzing the biodegradation process of plastic polymers.
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