Fungi Discovered In The Amazon Will Eat Plastic
Jeanwah
Posts: 6,363
http://www.fastcoexist.com/1679201/fung ... c#comments
The Amazon is home to more species than almost anywhere else on earth. One of them, carried home recently by a group from Yale University, appears to be quite happy eating plastic in airless landfills.
The group of students, part of Yale’s annual Rainforest Expedition and Laboratory with molecular biochemistry professor Scott Strobel, ventured to the jungles of Ecuador. The mission was to allow "students to experience the scientific inquiry process in a comprehensive and creative way." The group searched for plants, and then cultured the microorganisms within the plant tissue. As it turns out, they brought back a fungus new to science with a voracious appetite for a global waste problem: polyurethane.
The common plastic is used for everything from garden hoses to shoes and truck seats. Once it gets into the trash stream, it persists for generations. Anyone alive today is assured that their old garden hoses and other polyurethane trash will still be here to greet his or her great, great grandchildren. Unless something eats it.
The fungi, Pestalotiopsis microspora, is the first anyone has found to survive on a steady diet of polyurethane alone and--even more surprising--do this in an anaerobic (oxygen-free) environment that is close to the condition at the bottom of a landfill.
Student Pria Anand recorded the microbe’s remarkable behavior and Jonathan Russell isolated the enzymes that allow the organism to degrade plastic as its food source. The Yale team published their findings in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology late last year concluding the microbe is "a promising source of biodiversity from which to screen for metabolic properties useful for bioremediation." In the future, our trash compactors may simply be giant fields of voracious fungi.
Who knows what the students in the rainforest will turn up next?
The Amazon is home to more species than almost anywhere else on earth. One of them, carried home recently by a group from Yale University, appears to be quite happy eating plastic in airless landfills.
The group of students, part of Yale’s annual Rainforest Expedition and Laboratory with molecular biochemistry professor Scott Strobel, ventured to the jungles of Ecuador. The mission was to allow "students to experience the scientific inquiry process in a comprehensive and creative way." The group searched for plants, and then cultured the microorganisms within the plant tissue. As it turns out, they brought back a fungus new to science with a voracious appetite for a global waste problem: polyurethane.
The common plastic is used for everything from garden hoses to shoes and truck seats. Once it gets into the trash stream, it persists for generations. Anyone alive today is assured that their old garden hoses and other polyurethane trash will still be here to greet his or her great, great grandchildren. Unless something eats it.
The fungi, Pestalotiopsis microspora, is the first anyone has found to survive on a steady diet of polyurethane alone and--even more surprising--do this in an anaerobic (oxygen-free) environment that is close to the condition at the bottom of a landfill.
Student Pria Anand recorded the microbe’s remarkable behavior and Jonathan Russell isolated the enzymes that allow the organism to degrade plastic as its food source. The Yale team published their findings in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology late last year concluding the microbe is "a promising source of biodiversity from which to screen for metabolic properties useful for bioremediation." In the future, our trash compactors may simply be giant fields of voracious fungi.
Who knows what the students in the rainforest will turn up next?
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
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Shrooms. Is there anything they can't do?
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You do realize that this could actually change the world and possibly save it, right?
This is MEGA news if it's true.0 -
VINNY GOOMBA wrote:Shrooms. Is there anything they can't do?
, but seriously that is actually pretty amazing news 2005 - London
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Believe me, I wasn't being sarcastic. I hope this is true and it gets put to very good use ASAP. I think there are probably thousands of other solutions that can be found in Mother Nature to man-made problems. Go shrooms!0
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VINNY GOOMBA wrote:Shrooms. Is there anything they can't do?
The wonder fungus.
I believe (I really hope) this is true, but it's just been discovered. Hopefully we find out more about this!
Hey Vinny, I checked out your band in your siggy, they sound good!0 -
Jeanwah wrote:VINNY GOOMBA wrote:Shrooms. Is there anything they can't do?
The wonder fungus.
I believe (I really hope) this is true, but it's just been discovered. Hopefully we find out more about this!
Hey Vinny, I checked out your band in your siggy, they sound good!
Thank you! Free music in your PM box!
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That's pretty cool but just to play devil's advocate for a moment, what happens if they start using this fungus in landfills and it spreads out of control beyond the landfill? If it's something they can control, then it could be a nice solution to overflowing landfills but there's always the potential for unintended consequesnces when foreign life is introduced to a new environment--just look at the problem with exotic animals in Florida, especially pythons. A good rule of thumb is that even the smartest people are never as smart as they think.0
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My first thought was that maybe this could be used to clean up the massive collection of plastic floating in the middle of the pacific but apparently it only works in anaerobic environments. Monster Rain's observation got me thinking as well. I hope something like this is researched well before it is let loose. If nothing else, however, the story reinforces the importance of protecting the rain forests!"It's a sad and beautiful world"-Roberto Benigni0
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Paul Stamets has been doing shit "like" this for a while.
Cleaning up superfund & toxic waste sites with "special" mushrooms (just certain kinds he has found through trial and error to feed better on toxic soil) ...
Stamets - 6 Ways Mushrooms Can Save The World
(stamets has some weird "McKenna-like" theories as well ... "we are mushrooms" type shit, lol)
Of course, PLASTIC eating mushrooms is WAY COOL too.
Yay shrooms, yay science!If I was to smile and I held out my hand
If I opened it now would you not understand?0 -
Sweet! Guess I can stop recycling now
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VINNY GOOMBA wrote:Jeanwah wrote:VINNY GOOMBA wrote:Shrooms. Is there anything they can't do?
The wonder fungus.
I believe (I really hope) this is true, but it's just been discovered. Hopefully we find out more about this!
Hey Vinny, I checked out your band in your siggy, they sound good!
Thank you! Free music in your PM box!
Ooh thank you, I love free music! 0
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