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Comparison of polylactic acid biodegradation ability of Brevibacillus brevis and Bacillus amyloliquefaciens and promotion of PLA biodegradation by soytone

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Abstract

Polylactic acid (PLA), a biodegradable plastic, is used to substitute commercial plastics in various fields such as disposable packaging materials and mulching films. Although the biodegradation of PLA under submerged or composting conditions is accelerated, increasing the biodegradability of PLA under soil burial conditions is still a challenge. This study reviews and compares the PLA biodegradation ability of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens and Brevibacillus brevis, both PLA-degrading bacteria. The biodegradation ability of a single bacteria in non-composting conditions was evaluated. In addition, in terms of biostimulation, PLA biodegradation according to nitrogen sources was compared. As a result, a higher PLA biodegradation ability was found in B. brevis than in B. amyloliquefaciens. Moreover, it was confirmed that the biodegradation of the PLA film was increased by using soytone as a nitrogen source in both bacteria. Controlling the nitrogen source could be a new way to increase the biodegradation of PLA.

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All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Materials and Components Technology Development Program (Grant No. 20016728) funded by the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy (MOTIE/KEIT, Korea) and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety (MOIS, Korea) and the Jeonbuk Institute for Food-Bioindustry funded by the Regionally Balanced New Deal Project of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and Jeollabuk-do.

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Author notes

  1. Jaeyoung Yu and Pa Do Kim have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Semiconductor and Chemical Engineering, Jeonbuk National University, 567 Baekje-daero, Deokjin-gu, Jeonju-si, Jeollabuk-do, 54896, Republic of Korea

    Jaeyoung Yu, Pa Do Kim, Yewon Jang, Sung-Kon Kim, Jeehoon Han & Jiho Min

  2. Department of Chemical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, 37673, Republic of Korea

    Jeehoon Han

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  1. Jaeyoung Yu
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  2. Pa Do Kim
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  4. Sung-Kon Kim
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Contributions

JY: conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, investigation, methodology, validation, writing—original draft, writing—review & editing. PDK: data curation, formal analysis, methodology, validation, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing. YJ: data curation, investigation, methodology. S-KK: project administration, funding acquisition. JH: project administration, funding acquisition. JM: conceptualization, funding acquisition, methodology, project administration, resources, supervision, writing—review & editing.

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Correspondence to Jiho Min.

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Yu, J., Kim, P.D., Jang, Y. et al. Comparison of polylactic acid biodegradation ability of Brevibacillus brevis and Bacillus amyloliquefaciens and promotion of PLA biodegradation by soytone. Biodegradation 33, 477–487 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10532-022-09993-y

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