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Galleria Mellonella Larvae as an Alternative to Low-Density Polyethylene and Polystyrene Biodegradation

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Abstract

The excessive plastics production and its inappropriate disposal contribute to unprecedented pollution. Galleria mellonella larvae were chosen as the object of this work, in order to evaluate its ability to biodegrade two types of plastics most common in everyday life: polystyrene (PS) and low-density polyethylene (LDPE). This research is one of the few that use PS and LDPE as the sole carbon sources in the diet of G. mellonella. We studied how contact with larvae affected both types of plastic, covering morphological, physicochemical and mass loss levels. In this particular work, twenty-five larvae were placed inside glass containers in direct contact with the plastics and incubated in the dark at 28 °C. The results showed that PS had greater biodegradation, indicating 56.12% mass loss, while LDPE was 5.11% degraded. After 7.25 days of testing, the larvae survival rate was 60% for PS and 82% for LDPE. The contact with the larvae changed the material wettability, being more noticeable on the PS surface. The formation of new chemical groups indicated the existence of biodegradation processes in the PS sample, but in LDPE no new bands were observed. After 7.25 days, we evaluated larval survival and pupal formation after contact with PS and LPDE, but no significant differences were observed between the groups. No significant difference on the survival and pupa formation of larvae exposed to both types of plastic was found. We conclude that G. mellonella larvae can be a cost-effective and promising alternative to biodegrade PS and LDPE pieces in plastic waste environments.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES), São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP); National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and Advanced Microscopy Laboratory (LMA) located at UNESP Chemistry Institute in Araraquara, Brazil.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (PIBIC-CNPq Program, Processes 468/2020 and 52290/2019) and São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) - (Processes number 2011/17411-8, 2014/17526-8, and 2017/19603-8). Lastly, Rondinelli D. Herculano thanks the fellowships from CNPq (grant number 317203/2021-5).

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Bioengineering & Biomaterials Group, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, São Paulo State University (UNESP), Km 01 Araraquara-Jaú Road, Araraquara, São Paulo, BR, Brazil

      Betina Sayeg Burd, Jean Lucas Tanaka, Mateus Scontri, Giovana Sant’Ana Pegorin Brasil, Ana Paula De Sousa Abreu, Camila Calderan Bebber & Rondinelli Donizetti Herculano

    2. Escuela de Agronomía, Facultad de Ciencias Agronómicas y de los Alimentos, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Valparaíso, Chile

      Cassamo Ussemane Mussagy

    3. Department of Clinical Analysis, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, São Paulo State University (UNESP), Km 01 Araraquara-Jaú Road, Araraquara, São Paulo, BR, Brazil

      Junya de Lacorte Singulani, Ana Marisa Fusco Almeida & Maria José Soares Mendes - Giannini

    4. Area of Exact Sciences and Engineering, University of Caxias do Sul (UCS), Caxias do Sul, Rio Grande do Sul, BR, Brazil

      Nayrim Brizuela Guerra

    5. School of Agriculture, São Paulo State University (UNESP), 3780 Universitary Ave, Botucatu, Sao Paulo, Brazil

      Patrícia Akemi Assato

    6. Department of Biosciences and Oral Diagnosis, Institute of Science and Technology, São Paulo State University (UNESP), São José dos Campos, São Paulo, BR, Brazil

      Maíra Terra-Garcia & Juliana Campos Junqueira

    7. Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation (TIBI), 11507 W Olympic Blvd, Los Angeles, CA, USA

      Neda Farhadi, Bingbing Li & Rondinelli Donizetti Herculano

    8. Autonomy Research Center for STEAHM (ARCS), California State University Northridge, 18111 Nordhoff St, Northridge, CA, USA

      Bingbing Li

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    Contributions

    Betina Sayeg Burd: Investigation, Methodology, Formal analysis, Data curation, Validation, Writing - original draft. Cassamo Ussemane Mussagy: Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing. Junya Singulani Lacorte: Writing review & editing, Previous analysis, Methodology. Jean Lucas Tanaka: Writing - review & editing. Mateus Scontri: Writing review & editing. Giovana Sant’Ana Pegorin Brasil: Previous analysis, Writing - original draft, Writing review & editing. Nayrim Brizuela Guerra: Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing. Maíra Terra-Garcia: Methodology, Writing - review & editing. Juliana Campos Junqueira: Methodology, Writing - review & editing. Neda Farhadi: Writing - review & editing. Patrícia Akemi Assato: Data curation, Writing - review & editing. Ana Paula De Sousa Abreu: Writing - review & editing. Camila Calderan Bebber: Writing - review & editing. Ana Marisa Fusco Almeida, Maria José Soares Mendes Giannini and Bingbing Li: Writing - review & editing. Rondinelli Donizetti Herculano: Writing - review & editing, Validation, Funding acquisition, Project administration, Resources, Writing - original draft.

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    Correspondence to Betina Sayeg Burd, Cassamo Ussemane Mussagy or Rondinelli Donizetti Herculano.

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    Burd, B.S., Mussagy, C.U., de Lacorte Singulani, J. et al. Galleria Mellonella Larvae as an Alternative to Low-Density Polyethylene and Polystyrene Biodegradation. J Polym Environ 31, 1232–1241 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10924-022-02696-8

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