Exploitation of Potential Extremophiles for Bioremediation of Microplastics: A Biotechnological Approach

Abstract

Due to their widespread use in consumer products, construction, building, and agriculture, plastics have a significant economic impact on every area of the global economy. Since they are utilized to make a variety of goods, such as protective materials, sanitary ware, tiles, plastic bottles, artificial leather, and other home items, they serve as the foundation of numerous enterprises. Additionally, packaging for food, medications, detergents, and cosmetics uses plastic. Huge volumes of garbage accumulate in land and marine habitats as a result of intensive exploitation, inadequate recycling, minimal repeated use, as well as extraordinary plastic resilience to environmental and microbial activity, posing a serious threat to human and animal life. Plastic biodegradation has drawn a lot of attention from biologists in recent years. There aren’t enough efficient enzymes for their degradation process because of how recently they appeared in nature during evolution. Human beings use plastics or microplastics in the normal environment, but when it is exposed to extreme environmental conditions, such as cold temperatures, salinity, and high or low pH levels, which are conducible for the survival of extremophilic bacteria and proper functioning of the enzymes, their basic composition roughly changes. This evaluation is an initial attempt to compile extremely scant data on thermophilic, alkaliphilic, halophilic, as well as psychrophilic bacteria’s biodegradation of typically manufactured plastics in both natural settings and laboratory settings. These microorganisms are advantageous for green chemistry to get rid of toxic plastics from the ecosystem because of their capacity for bioremediation and plastic degradation.