Biodegradation of HDPE by Aspergillus spp. from marine ecosystem of Gulf of Mannar, India

• Published in: Marine pollution bulletin Vol. 96; no. 1-2; pp. 32 - 40
• Main Authors: Sangeetha Devi, Rajendran, Rajesh Kannan, Velu, Nivas, Duraisamy, Kannan, Kanthaiah, Chandru, Sekar, Robert Antony, Arokiaswamy
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 15.07.2015
• Subjects: Aspergillus; Aspergillus - growth & development; Aspergillus - metabolism; Aspergillus flavus; Aspergillus flavus VRKPT2; Aspergillus tubingensis; Aspergillus tubingensis VRKPT1; Biodegradation; Biodegradation, Environmental; Biofilms - growth & development; Carbon; Carbon - metabolism; Degradation; Ecosystem; Fourier transformed infra-red spectroscopy; Fungi; HDPE; India; Marine; Polyethylene - analysis; Polyethylenes; Reactive Oxygen Species - metabolism; Scanning electron microscopy; Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared; Strain; Water Pollutants, Chemical - analysis; India; ISW, India; HDPE; Fourier transformed infra-red spectroscopy; Scanning electron microscopy; Aspergillus tubingensis VRKPT1; Aspergillus flavus VRKPT2
• ISSN: 0025-326X; 1879-3363
• DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2015.05.050

•We assessed the HDPE degrading fungi from marine ecosystem.•Two efficient HDPE degraders were identified as Aspergillus spp.•Both the fungi degrade HDPE without any pre-treatment and pro-oxidant additives.•HDPE biodegradation was confirmed by FT-IR and SEM analysis. High density polyethylene (HDPE) is the most commonly found non-degradable solid waste among the polyethylene. In this present study, HDPE degrading various fungal strains were isolated from the polyethylene waste dumped marine coastal area and screened under in vitro condition. Based on weight loss and FT-IR Spectrophotometric analysis, two fungal strains designated as VRKPT1 and VRKPT2 were found to be efficient in HDPE degradation. Through the sequence analysis of ITS region homology, the isolated fungi were identified as Aspergillus tubingensis VRKPT1 and Aspergillus flavus VRKPT2. The biofilm formation observed under epifluorescent microscope had shown the viability of fungal strains even after one month of incubation. The biodegradation of HDPE film nature was further investigated through SEM analysis. HDPE poses severe environmental threats and hence the ability of fungal isolates was proved to utilize virgin polyethylene as the carbon source without any pre-treatment and pro-oxidant additives.