The Potential Role of Marine Fungi in Plastic Degradation – A Review

Zeghal, Emna; Vaksmaa, Annika; Vielfaure, Hortense; Boekhout, Teun; Niemann, Helge

doi:10.3389/fmars.2021.738877

Cited by 72 publications

(57 citation statements)

References 191 publications

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“…Plastics accumulating in the marine environment are an increasingly important environmental issue [ 34 ]. Most of the plastic waste is accumulated in the sea, and there will be more plastics in the sea than fish by 2050.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Review of the Fungi That Degrade Plastic

Ekanayaka

Tibpromma

Dai

et al. 2022

JoF

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Plastic has become established over the world as an essential basic need for our daily life. Current global plastic production exceeds 300 million tons annually. Plastics have many characteristics such as low production costs, inertness, relatively low weight, and durability. The primary disadvantage of plastics is their extremely slow natural degradation. The latter results in an accumulation of plastic waste in nature. The amount of plastic waste as of 2015 was 6300 million tons worldwide, and 79% of this was placed in landfills or left in the natural environment. Moreover, recent estimates report that 12,000 million tons of plastic waste will have been accumulated on the earth by 2050. Therefore, it is necessary to develop an effective plastic biodegradation process to accelerate the natural degradation rate of plastics. More than 400 microbes have been identified as capable of plastic degradation. This is the first paper of the series on plastic-degrading fungi. This paper provides a summary of the current global production of plastic and plastic waste accumulation in nature. A list is given of all the plastic-degrading fungi recorded thus far, based on the available literature, and comments are made relating to the major fungal groups. In addition, the phylogenetic relationships of plastic-degrading fungi were analyzed using a combined ITS, LSU, SSU, TEF, RPB1, and RPB2 dataset consisting of 395 strains. Our results confirm that plastic-degrading fungi are found in eleven classes in the fungal phyla Ascomycota (Dothideomycetes, Eurotiomycetes, Leotiomycetes, Saccharomycetes, and Sordariomycetes), Basidiomycota (Agaricomycetes, Microbotryomycetes, Tremellomycetes, Tritirachiomycetes, and Ustilaginomy-cetes), and Mucoromycota (Mucoromycetes). The taxonomic placement of plastic-degrading fungal taxa is briefly discussed. The Eurotiomycetes include the largest number of plastic degraders in the kingdom Fungi. The results presented herein are expected to influence the direction of future research on similar topics in order to find effective plastic-degrading fungi that can eliminate plastic wastes. The next publication of the series on plastic-degrading fungi will be focused on major metabolites, degradation pathways, and enzyme production in plastic degradation by fungi.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Iram et al [ 33 ] reviewed some of the most common strategies for the degradation of various types of polymers, along with a list of potential microbes capable of feeding on them. The role of marine fungi was also recently reviewed by Zeghal et al [ 34 ]. Microbial degradation of plastics was reviewed by Kale et al [ 22 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review of the Fungi That Degrade Plastic

Ekanayaka

Tibpromma

Dai

et al. 2022

JoF

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“…As fungi are known to produce a variety of enzymes that have the potential to break down the chemical bonds of plastic polymers, they might have a role in the degradation of marine plastics [ 112 ]. Seminal works on plastic deterioration by marine fungi have suggested that polyurethanes are more susceptible to fungal attacks [ 113 ].…”

Section: Ecological Roles Of Mycoplanktonmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diversity, Abundance, and Ecological Roles of Planktonic Fungi in Marine Environments

Sen

Wang

2022

JoF

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Fungi are considered terrestrial and oceans are a “fungal desert”. However, with the considerable progress made over past decades, fungi have emerged as morphologically, phylogenetically, and functionally diverse components of the marine water column. Although their communities are influenced by a plethora of environmental factors, the most influential include salinity, temperature, nutrients, and dissolved oxygen, suggesting that fungi respond to local environmental gradients. The biomass carbon of planktonic fungi exhibits spatiotemporal dynamics and can reach up to 1 μg CL−1 of seawater, rivaling bacteria on some occasions, which suggests their active and important role in the water column. In the nutrient-rich coastal water column, there is increasing evidence for their contribution to biogeochemical cycling and food web dynamics on account of their saprotrophic, parasitic, hyper-parasitic, and pathogenic attributes. Conversely, relatively little is known about their function in the open-ocean water column. Interestingly, methodological advances in sequencing and omics approach, the standardization of sequence data analysis tools, and integration of data through network analyses are enhancing our current understanding of the ecological roles of these multifarious and enigmatic members of the marine water column. This review summarizes the current knowledge of the diversity and abundance of planktonic fungi in the world’s oceans and provides an integrated and holistic view of their ecological roles.

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“…Besides being a source of bioactive compounds, marine fungi are also recognized for their metabolic capacities for bioremediation. This capacity aids, for instance, in the degradation of recalcitrant cell wall compounds (marine fungi express catalases, laccases, peroxidases) and environmental contaminants (e.g., toxic pollutants and microplastics) [11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Marine Fungi: Opportunities and Challenges

2022

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Marine fungi play a crucial role in energy flow and nutrient recycling, mediating the cycling of dissolved organic matter in marine environments. However, despite being a prolific group of organisms, marine fungi have been largely neglected for a long time. Besides their importance in the marine food web, marine fungi represent an active source of natural products. Over the last years, researchers have focused on studying marine organisms to discover new metabolites with antibacterial, antiviral, and anticancer activities. Moreover, with the advances in high-throughput sequencing technologies and mass spectrometry techniques, genomic and metabolomic approaches have revealed to be of paramount importance in natural products discovery. The marine mycobiome includes many organisms still to be identified, and the ones already known are still underutilized in biotechnological applications. For this reason, it is undeniable that exploring the marine mycobiome including new habitats and substrates, even those of remote access, is fundamental for describing the true magnitude of the Earth’s mycobiome.

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The Potential Role of Marine Fungi in Plastic Degradation – A Review

Cited by 72 publications

References 191 publications

A Review of the Fungi That Degrade Plastic

A Review of the Fungi That Degrade Plastic

Diversity, Abundance, and Ecological Roles of Planktonic Fungi in Marine Environments

Marine Fungi: Opportunities and Challenges

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