{"id":756211,"date":"2026-09-01T02:28:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T02:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/756211\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T02:28:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T02:28:13","slug":"it-looks-like-spaghetti-doesnt-have-a-gut-or-mouth-and-has-been-feeding-on-bioplastics-for-millions-of-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/756211\/","title":{"rendered":"It looks like spaghetti, doesn\u2019t have a gut or mouth \u2013 and has been feeding on bioplastics for millions of years"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany, have discovered that breaking down microbial bioplastics isn\u2019t a skill reserved for microorganisms, like previously thought \u2013 but for a much wider range of animals. The findings were\u00a0published<\/a>\u00a0in the journal\u00a0Nature Ecology & Evolution.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It all started with\u00a0Olavius algarvensis, a species<\/a> of marine worm that doesn\u2019t have a mouth or gut but survives by digesting symbiotic bacteria<\/a> that live beneath its skin.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This bacteria stores extra carbon and energy inside themselves as a substance called polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA), which is essentially nature’s version of plastic. Up until now, scientists assumed that only microorganisms could break down these biodegradable plastics.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the worm\u2019s bacterial symbionts stores enormous amounts of carbon as PHA,\u201d said corresponding author of the research Nicole Dubilier, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology. \u201cWe wondered whether the worm had evolved a way to access this rich energy reserve.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, they looked \u2013 and as it turns out, this unassuming worm produces an enzyme that can indeed break microbial PHAs into smaller molecules that can then be used for nutrition. The enzyme is produced right where the worm digests bacteria.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even more surprisingly, this newly discovered skill isn\u2019t unique to\u00a0Olavius algarvensis\u00a0\u2013 when the team examined different animal genomes, they found similar enzymes in over 66 species, including starfish<\/a>, earthworms<\/a>, sponges and a springtail.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was the real surprise,\u201d said first author Caroline Zeidler, \u201cWhat started as a discovery in a single marine worm turned out to be a widespread capability shared by animals from very different branches of the tree of life.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wider use<\/p>\n

Bacteria make PHA naturally when they have more carbon than they need \u2013 later, when they need that carbon, they break the PHA back down and use it for energy.<\/p>\n

In industrial bioplastic production, we\u2019ve basically hijacked the ‘making’ part of this cycle. Companies grow PHA-producing bacteria in fermentation tanks, feed them sugars or plant oils, let them stock up on PHA, and then extract and purify it before it gets consumed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

PHAs are among the few naturally occurring, completely biodegradable plastics, and are widely utilised across different industries, such as medicine, packaging, agriculture and more.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The main advantage of these plastics is their biological circularity \u2013 microorganisms make them and can also later break them down.\u00a0This is a sustainable alternative to conventional plastics, which don\u2019t break down \u2013 microorganisms don\u2019t recognise them as food, so they just physically separate into smaller and smaller pieces over hundreds of years, creating microplastics<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Interest in these bioplastics is growing and is expected to keep doing so in the coming years. According to the organisation European Bioplastics<\/a>, current forecasts<\/a> suggest that global biobased plastics production capacity will double from 2.31 million tonnes in 2025 to about 4.69 million tonnes by 2030.<\/p>\n

But currently, they still account for only a small share of the global market (roughly 0.5 per cent of the 431 million tonnes of plastics produced annually) because they\u2019re often more expensive and complicated to manufacture.<\/p>\n

The findings from Dubilier and her research team add a new player to this equation by showing that not only can other animals degrade natural bioplastics alongside microorganisms but also gain access to the carbon reserve and use it for nutrition.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOur study changes our understanding of who can use these microbial carbon stores,\u201d says co-author Maggie Sogin. \u201cAnimals have probably been feeding on nature\u2019s original bioplastic for hundreds of millions of years \u2013 we\u2019re only discovering it now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read the full findings\u00a0here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Top image: Olavius algarvensis from Elba, Italy. Credit: Alexander Gruhl, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany, have discovered that breaking down microbial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":756212,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[59,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-756211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-gb","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=756211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/756211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/756212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=756211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=756211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=756211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}