Editing Polyethylene (section)

===Bacteria and insect case studies===


The [[Indian mealmoth]] larvae are claimed to metabolize polyethylene based on observing that plastic bags at a researcher's home had small holes in them. Deducing that the hungry larvae must have digested the plastic somehow, he and his team analyzed their gut bacteria and found a few that could use plastic as their only carbon source. Not only could the bacteria from the guts of the ''Plodia interpunctella'' moth larvae metabolize polyethylene, they degraded it significantly, dropping its tensile strength by 50%, its mass by 10% and the molecular weights of its polymeric chains by 13%.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fondriest.com/news/discovery-plastic-eating-bacteria-may-speed-waste-reduction.htm |date=27 January 2015 |title=Discovery of plastic-eating bacteria may speed waste reduction |first=Lori |last=Balster |publisher=fondriest.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1021/es504038a |pmid=25384056 |title=Evidence of Polyethylene Biodegradation by Bacterial Strains from the Guts of Plastic-Eating Waxworms |journal=Environmental Science & Technology |volume=48 |issue=23 |pages=13776–84 |year=2014 |last1=Yang |first1=Jun |last2=Yang |first2=Yu |last3=Wu |first3=Wei-Min |last4=Zhao |first4=Jiao |last5=Jiang |first5=Lei |bibcode=2014EnST...4813776Y }}</ref>

The caterpillar of ''[[Galleria mellonella]]'' is claimed to consume polyethylene. The caterpillar is able to digest polyethylene due to a combination of its [[gut microbiota]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Cassone |first1=Bryan J. |last2=Grove |first2=Harald C. |last3=Elebute |first3=Oluwadara |last4=Villanueva |first4=Sachi M. P. |last5=LeMoine |first5=Christophe M. R. |date=2020-03-11 |title=Role of the intestinal microbiome in low-density polyethylene degradation by caterpillar larvae of the greater wax moth, Galleria mellonella |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |language=en |volume=287 |issue=1922 |pages=20200112 |doi=10.1098/rspb.2020.0112 |issn=0962-8452 |pmc=7126078 |pmid=32126962}}</ref> and its saliva containing [[Enzyme|enzymes]] that oxidise and depolymerise the plastic.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Sanluis-Verdes |first1=A. |last2=Colomer-Vidal |first2=P. |last3=Rodriguez-Ventura |first3=F. |last4=Bello-Villarino |first4=M. |last5=Spinola-Amilibia |first5=M. |last6=Ruiz-Lopez |first6=E. |last7=Illanes-Vicioso |first7=R. |last8=Castroviejo |first8=P. |last9=Aiese Cigliano |first9=R. |last10=Montoya |first10=M. |last11=Falabella |first11=P. |last12=Pesquera |first12=C. |last13=Gonzalez-Legarreta |first13=L. |last14=Arias-Palomo |first14=E. |last15=Solà |first15=M. |date=2022-10-04 |title=Wax worm saliva and the enzymes therein are the key to polyethylene degradation by Galleria mellonella |journal=Nature Communications |language=en |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=5568 |doi=10.1038/s41467-022-33127-w |pmid=36195604 |pmc=9532405 |bibcode=2022NatCo..13.5568S |issn=2041-1723}}</ref>