{"id":858168,"date":"2026-08-17T06:54:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T06:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/858168\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T06:54:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T06:54:09","slug":"natures-original-bioplastic-is-food-for-animals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/858168\/","title":{"rendered":"Nature\u2019s original bioplastic is food for animals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Long be\u00adfore hu\u00admans dis\u00adcovered bio\u00adde\u00adgrad\u00adable plastics<\/a>, mi\u00adcroor\u00adgan\u00adisms had already in\u00adven\u00adted their own. Many bac\u00adteria and ar\u00adchaea pro\u00adduce nat\u00adural bioplastics called poly\u00adhy\u00addroxyalkanoates (PHAs), stor\u00ading them in\u00adside their cells as re\u00adserves of car\u00adbon and en\u00adergy.<\/p>\n

Un\u00adtil now, sci\u00adent\u00adists thought that only mi\u00adcroor\u00adgan\u00adisms them\u00adselves could break down these sub\u00adstances. Re\u00adsearch\u00aders at the Max Planck In\u00adsti\u00adtute for Mar\u00adine Mi\u00adcro\u00adbi\u00ado\u00adlogy in Bre\u00admen, Ger\u00admany, have now over\u00adturned that long-stand\u00ading as\u00adsump\u00adtion. In a study pub\u00adlished in Nature Ecology & Evolution, they show that an\u00adim\u00adals ran\u00adging from mar\u00adine worms and star\u00adfish to ter\u00adrestrial spe\u00adcies in\u00adclud\u00ading earth\u00adworms have en\u00adzymes cap\u00adable of de\u00adgrad\u00ading mi\u00adcro\u00adbial PHAs. The find\u00adings re\u00adveal a pre\u00advi\u00adously over\u00adlooked way in which mi\u00adcro\u00adbial car\u00adbon can enter an\u00adimal food webs.<\/p>\n

The story began with an un\u00adusual mar\u00adine worm called Olavius algarvensis. It has neither a mouth nor a gut. In\u00adstead, it farms sym\u00adbi\u00adotic bac\u00adteria be\u00adneath its skin and di\u00adgests them for food.\u201cOne of the worm\u2019s bac\u00adterial sym\u00adbionts stores enorm\u00adous amounts of car\u00adbon as PHA,\u201d says cor\u00adres\u00adpond\u00ading au\u00adthor Nicole Du\u00adbilier, Dir\u00adector at the Max Planck In\u00adsti\u00adtute for Mar\u00adine Mi\u00adcro\u00adbi\u00ado\u00adlogy. \u201cWe wondered whether the worm had evolved a way to ac\u00adcess this rich en\u00adergy re\u00adserve.\u201d<\/p>\n

The an\u00adswer was: Yes. The re\u00adsearch\u00aders dis\u00adcovered an en\u00adzyme in the worm that breaks down mi\u00adcro\u00adbial PHAs into small mo\u00adlecules an\u00adim\u00adals can use. High res\u00adol\u00adu\u00adtion im\u00adages fur\u00adther showed that the en\u00adzyme is pro\u00adduced ex\u00adactly where the worm di\u00adgests its sym\u00adbionts. This sug\u00adgests that the worm can ac\u00adcess the PHA stored by its bac\u00adterial part\u00adners.<\/p>\n

The team then searched gen\u00adomes across the an\u00adimal king\u00addom and found re\u00adlated en\u00adzymes sur\u00adpris\u00adingly of\u00adten \u2013 in more than 66 an\u00adimal spe\u00adcies rep\u00adres\u00adent\u00ading nine dif\u00adfer\u00adent phyla. Labor\u00adat\u00adory ex\u00adper\u00adi\u00adments con\u00adfirmed that en\u00adzymes from phylo\u00adgen\u00adet\u00adic\u00adally dis\u00adtant an\u00adim\u00adals \u2013in\u00adclud\u00ading a sponge, an earth\u00adworm and a spring\u00adtail \u2013 also de\u00adgrade mi\u00adcro\u00adbial PHAs. \u201cThis was the real sur\u00adprise,\u201d says first au\u00adthor Car\u00adoline Zeidler from the Max Planck In\u00adsti\u00adtute for Mar\u00adine Mi\u00adcro\u00adbi\u00ado\u00adlogy. \u201cWhat star\u00adted as a dis\u00adcov\u00adery in a single mar\u00adine worm turned out to be a wide\u00adspread cap\u00adab\u00adil\u00adity shared by an\u00adim\u00adals from very dif\u00adfer\u00adent branches of the tree of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mi\u00adcro\u00adbial PHAs oc\u00adcur nat\u00adur\u00adally in soils, sed\u00adi\u00adments and aquatic en\u00advir\u00adon\u00adments world\u00adwide. They are pro\u00adduced whenever mi\u00adcroor\u00adgan\u00adisms store ex\u00adcess car\u00adbon for later use and are among the few nat\u00adur\u00adally oc\u00adcur\u00adring plastics that are com\u00adpletely bio\u00adde\u00adgrad\u00adable. Be\u00adcause PHAs are in\u00adcreas\u00adingly man\u00adu\u00adfac\u00adtured as sus\u00adtain\u00adable al\u00adtern\u00adat\u00adives to con\u00adven\u00adtional plastics, un\u00adder\u00adstand\u00ading how they are de\u00adgraded in nature has be\u00adcome an im\u00adport\u00adant area of re\u00adsearch.<\/p>\n

The new find\u00adings by Du\u00adbilier and her team sug\u00adgest that an\u00adim\u00adals, to\u00adgether with mi\u00adcroor\u00adgan\u00adisms, may con\u00adtrib\u00adute to the break\u00addown of these nat\u00adural bioplastics. More fun\u00adda\u00adment\u00adally, they re\u00adveal that an\u00adim\u00adals can ex\u00adploit a mi\u00adcro\u00adbial car\u00adbon re\u00adserve that had pre\u00advi\u00adously been thought to be in\u00adac\u00adcess\u00adible to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur study changes our un\u00adder\u00adstand\u00ading of who can use these mi\u00adcro\u00adbial car\u00adbon stores,\u201d says co-cor\u00adres\u00adpond\u00ading au\u00adthor Mag\u00adgie So\u00adgin, who car\u00adried out much of the work at the Max Planck In\u00adsti\u00adtute for Mar\u00adine Mi\u00adcro\u00adbi\u00ado\u00adlogy and is now As\u00adsist\u00adant Pro\u00adfessor at the Uni\u00adversity of Cali\u00adfor\u00adnia, Merced. \u201cAn\u00adim\u00adals have prob\u00adably been feed\u00ading on nature\u2019s ori\u00adginal bioplastic for hun\u00addreds of mil\u00adlions of years \u2013 we\u2019re only dis\u00adcov\u00ader\u00ading it now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The re\u00adsearch\u00aders em\u00adphas\u00adize that much re\u00admains to be learned about how wide\u00adspread this pro\u00adcess is in nature and how much it con\u00adtrib\u00adutes to car\u00adbon cyc\u00adling. Nev\u00ader\u00adthe\u00adless, the dis\u00adcov\u00adery opens a new per\u00adspect\u00adive on in\u00adter\u00adac\u00adtions between mi\u00adcroor\u00adgan\u00adisms and an\u00adim\u00adals and high\u00adlights how stud\u00adies of un\u00adusual or\u00adgan\u00adisms can re\u00adveal en\u00adtirely un\u00adex\u00adpec\u00adted bio\u00adlo\u00adgical pro\u00adcesses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Long be\u00adfore hu\u00admans dis\u00adcovered bio\u00adde\u00adgrad\u00adable plastics, mi\u00adcroor\u00adgan\u00adisms had already in\u00adven\u00adted their own. Many bac\u00adteria and ar\u00adchaea pro\u00adduce nat\u00adural…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":858169,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[64,63,128],"class_list":["post-858168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=858168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/858169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=858168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=858168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=858168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}