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Metabolic Cascade for Remediation of Plastic Waste: a Case Study on Microplastic Degradation

  • Water Pollution (G Toor and L Nghiem, Section Editors)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Microplastics have emerged as an ubiquitous pollutant with severe environmental and human health hazards. Over the decades encountering these pollutants, microorganisms have evolved with the tool(s) to degrade different classes of plastic polymers. Several enzymes including depolymerases and lipases have been studied for the reduction of plastic toxicity. Since the degradation of plastic is a long process, thus, meta “omics” approaches have been employed to identify the active microbiota and microbial dynamics involved in the mitigation of microplastic-contaminated sites. Further, protein engineering approaches have opened new avenues to tackle this alarming situation. Increasing plastic contamination is serving as a breeding ground and carrier for spread of other persistent chlorinated pollutant. This review for the first time summarized a comprehensive report on microplastic sources, toxicity, and bio-based mitigation approaches. It covers deeper understanding about multi-omic approaches in microplastic research and engineering technologies in microplastic degradation. The guidelines and regulation to tackle the increasing pollution have been discussed. Knowledge gaps and opportunities have been comprehensively compiled that would aid the state-of-the-art information in the available literature for the researchers to further address this issue.

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Acknowledgements

SV is thankful to the management of Gujarat Pollution Control Board necessary facilities for their work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Energy and Environmental Sustainability, Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow, 226 029, India

    Vivek K. Gaur

  2. Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Amity University Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow Campus, Lucknow, 226 010, India

    Vivek K. Gaur & Janmejai Kumar Srivastava

  3. Harcourt Butler Technical University, Kanpur, India

    Shivangi Gupta

  4. Department of Bioengineering, Integral University, Lucknow, 226 026, India

    Poonam Sharma

  5. Bioscience and Biotechnology Department, Banasthali University, Rajasthan, India

    Pallavi Gupta

  6. Gujarat Pollution Control Board, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, 382 010, India

    Sunita Varjani

  7. Department of Chemical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan

    Jo-Shu Chang

  8. Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HCMUT), Ho Chi Minh City, 700000, Vietnam

    Xuan-Thanh Bui

  9. Key Laboratory of Advanced Waste Treatment Technology, Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh (VNU-HCM), Linh Trung ward, Thu Duc district, Ho Chi Minh City, 700000, Vietnam

    Xuan-Thanh Bui

Authors
  1. Vivek K. Gaur
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  2. Shivangi Gupta
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  3. Poonam Sharma
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  4. Pallavi Gupta
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  5. Sunita Varjani
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  6. Janmejai Kumar Srivastava
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  7. Jo-Shu Chang
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  8. Xuan-Thanh Bui
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Correspondence to Sunita Varjani.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Water Pollution

Vivek K. Gaur, Shivangi Gupta, and Poonam Sharma are equal first authors

Highlights

• Escalating microplastic contamination is inevitable.

• Meta “omics” approaches offer better insights into microbial-aided degradation.

• Bioengineering approaches can serve as a better tool for plastic degradation.

• Plastic contamination increases the emergence of antibiotic-resistant genes.

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Gaur, V.K., Gupta, S., Sharma, P. et al. Metabolic Cascade for Remediation of Plastic Waste: a Case Study on Microplastic Degradation. Curr Pollution Rep 8, 30–50 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40726-021-00210-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40726-021-00210-7

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