:
Since the last few decades, the promiscuous and uncontrolled use of plastics leads to the
accumulation of millions of tons of plastic waste in the terrestrial and marine environment and
elevated the risk of environmental pollution and climate change. The concern arises more due to
the reckless and unscientific disposal of plastics containing high molecular weight polymers, viz.,
polystyrene, polyamide, polyvinylchloride, polypropylene, polyurethane, and polyethylene, etc.
which are very difficult to degrade. Thus, the focus is now paid to search for efficient, eco-friendly,
low-cost waste management technology. Of them, degradation of non-degradable synthetic
polymer using diverse microbial agents, viz., bacteria, fungi, and other extremophiles become an
emerging option. So far, very few microbial agents and their secreted enzymes have been identified
and characterized for plastic degradation, but with low efficiency. It might be due to the
predominance of uncultured microbial species; consequently remain unexplored from the
respective plastic degrading milieu. To overcome this problem, metagenomic analysis of microbial
population engaged in the plastic biodegradation is advisable to decipher the microbial community
structure and to predict their biodegradation potential in situ. Advancements in sequencing
technologies and bioinformatics analysis allow the rapid metagenome screening that helps in the
identification of total microbial community and also opens up the scope for mining genes or
enzymes (hydrolases, laccase, etc.) engaged in polymer degradation. Further, the extraction of the
core microbial population and their adaptation, fitness, and survivability can also be deciphered
through comparative metagenomic study. It will help to engineer the microbial community and
their metabolic activity to speed up the degradation process.