Some Fungi Degrade Polyurethanes

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Conidia and conidiophore of Cladosporium cladosporioides 
(Source: commons.wikimedia.org)

Fungi, a separate kingdom in living organisms, includes vast numbers of species with diverse usage to humanity and roles in the ecosystem. They are known to have a potential to reduce human-induced pollution by degrading numbers of toxic as well as non-toxic xenobiotics and transforming a wide variety of hazardous chemicals. In a recent study done by a group of scientists under the leadership of Ivano Brunner from Switzerland showed an ability of fungi to degrade plastic waste in the environment. The results are published in the PLOS ONE journal (Date: August 22, 2018) showing the power of fungi isolated from plastic debris floating in the shoreline of  Zurich lake, Switzerland, to degrade plastics. 
Memory foam cushion made up of viscoelastic polyurethane
(Source: commons.wikimedia.org)

The team of researchers isolated over a hundred fungal strains and grouped them on the basis of external features. Also, they selected and genetically identified twelve different fungal species and one species of Oomycota as representative strains of these groups. These strains generally occur as saprotrophic fungi and some plant pathogens. The representative strains were tested to know the ability to degrade polyethylene and polyurethane. The most notable thing in their test is that three litter-saprotrophic fungi Cladosporium cladosporioides, Xepiculopsis graminea, and Penicillium griseofulvum and the plant pathogen Leptosphaeria sp. did degrade polyurethane. However, All of the fungi in their study were unable to degrade polyethylene.

For more details, visit this link: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0202047        

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