Microbiological
Communication
Biosci. Biotech. Res. Comm. 6(2):
Biodegradation of pre treated polythene by different species of Aspergillus isolated from garbage soil
Rupa Guha Nandi* and Mamta Joshi
Department of Biotechnology, Sri Sathya Sai College for Women, Bhopal, India
ABSTRACT
Polythene is most problematic plastic waste which is an increasing ecological threat, as it is a polyethylene are stable polymers and can not easily degraded. In the present investigation an attempt has been made to study the biodegradation of polythene in control laboratory conditions. Different species of fungi were isolated from soil of Municipal Garbage. During the time of investigation microorganisms associated with polythene were identified. They were found to utilize the polythene as source of carbon resulting into its degradation. The microbial species found associated with the degrading materials were identified after staining them with cotton blue. Efficacy of the microbial species in degradation of polythene was analyzed in shaker cultures in the laboratory. Biodegradation comparative studies were done between pretreated and untreated polythene. Polythene discs were irradiated by UV at 254 nm wavelength and then incubated with 99.0% of nitric acid. This pretreated discs were then treated with microbial culture and untreated discs were also given microbial treatment to observe microbial biodegradation. Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus flavus started the degrading of polythene in
KEY WORDS: ASPERGILLUS, BIODEGRADATION, POLYTHENE, GA AGE, SOIL
INTRODUCTION
Polythene being xenobiotic is greatly resistant to degradat- ion. This is recognized as a major threat to land and aquatic life both. Degradation of polythene is a great challenge for researchers. Biodegradation is the natural way to resolve this threat. The ability of microorganisms to degrade extracellular polymer depends on the secretion of specific
The coastal mangroves have historically been favored dumping sites for the solid waste disposal (Kathiresan and Bingham, 2001). Microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi
ARTICLE INFORMATION:
*Corresponding Author Received 15th October, 2013
Accepted after revision 30th December, 2013 BBRC Print ISSN:
Online ISSN:
©A Society of Science and Nature Publication, 2013. All rights reserved.
Online Contents Available at: http//www.bbrc.in/
are involved in the degradation of both natural and synthetic plastic (Gu et al., 2000, Lee et al., 1991) have reported the biodegradation of degradable plastic polyethylene by phanero- chaete and Streptomyces species.
During degradation process
The initial breakdown of a polymers can result from a vari- ety of physical and biological forces (Swift, 1997). Physical forces such as heating and drying can cause mechanical dam- age such as the cracking of polymeric materials (Kamal and Huang, 1992).
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