Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Bioaugmentation of Enterobacter cloacae AKS7 causes an enhanced degradation of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) in soil: a promising approach for the sustainable management of LDPE waste

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Archives of Microbiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Enterobacter cloacae AKS7 was previously reported to degrade UV-treated low-density polyethylene (LDPE) more efficiently than UV-untreated LDPE. However, the degradation of LDPE by Enterobacter cloacae AKS7 at the LDPE-contaminated soil remained unaddressed. To address this issue, soil microcosms were prepared in which an equal amount of either UV-treated or UV-untreated LDPE was added. Then, the microcosms were either augmented with AKS7 or left non-augmented. We observed that the bioaugmented microcosms exhibited approximately twofold greater polymer degradation than non-bioaugmented microcosms. To investigate the underlying cause, we found that the abundance of LDPE-degrading organisms got increased by approximately fivefold in bioaugmented microcosms than non-bioaugmented microcosms. The microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen content got enhanced by approximately twofold in bioaugmented microcosms as contrasted to non-bioaugmented microcosms. Furthermore, the bioaugmented microcosms showed almost twofold increase in the level of dehydrogenase and fluorescein diacetate (FDA) hydrolyzing activity than the non-bioaugmented microcosms. To add on, Shannon-diversity index and Gini coefficient were determined in each microcosm to measure the microbial richness and evenness, respectively, using the results of carbon source utilization pattern of BiOLOG ECO plate. The bioaugmented microcosms exhibited ~ 30% higher functional richness and ~ 30% enhanced functional evenness than the non-bioaugmented microcosms indicating the formation of an enriched ecosystem that could offer various functions including polymer degradation. Taken together, the results suggested that Enterobacter cloacae AKS7 could be used as a promising bioaugmenting agent for the sustainable degradation of LDPE waste at a contaminated site.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

Availability of data and material

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from thecorresponding author on reasonable request.

Code availability

Minitab 19 software was used for the current study. The software happens to be a trial version.

References

Download references

Funding

None.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

RS, PC and SS performed the experiments, analysed the results and wrote the manuscript. MMG analysed the results and wrote the manuscript. PT conceived the idea, designed the experiments, analysed the results and critically arranged the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Prosun Tribedi.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declared that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethics approval

Not required.

Consent to participate

Not applicable.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Additional information

Communicated by Erko Stackebrandt.

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary Information

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary file1 (DOC 172 KB)

Supplementary file2 (DOC 30 KB)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Sarker, R.K., Chakraborty, P., Sarkar, S. et al. Bioaugmentation of Enterobacter cloacae AKS7 causes an enhanced degradation of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) in soil: a promising approach for the sustainable management of LDPE waste. Arch Microbiol 204, 74 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-021-02645-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-021-02645-4

Keywords

Navigation