Jakarta –
The mushrooms that live in the forest have many functions that we don’t seem to know about. Usually, some of these fungi will attach to trees and fallen logs to break down and digest the carbon before being released as carbon dioxide.
Revealed in a study uploaded in the journal PLOS One on (26/07/2023), it turns out that if there is no wood available for food, this wood-decomposing fungus can digest plastic instead.
White fungus breaks down lignin, a very strong organic polymer that helps give wood its strength, using enzymes, which are proteins that speed up chemical reactions in cells.
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“We thought, if these fungi can digest weather-resistant hardwoods, particularly lignin, they must have some weapons to digest some other polymers as well (such as polyethylene, or plastics),” said one of the study’s authors, Renuka Attanayake, an professor of plant pathology at the University of Kelaniya in Sri Lanka.
Researched in Sri Lankan Forests
The findings in this study were obtained by isolating 50 samples of the fungus from decaying hardwood found in the dry forest area of Dimlagala in central Sri Lanka, as quoted from the page Live Science.
The researchers then divided the samples into two main experimental conditions. It is divided into a case made of low density polyethylene (a type of plastic) and a case made of both plastic and wood.
After 45 days, it was seen that the fungi preferred wood over plastic. However, in both experimental settings, especially in plastic-filled containers, these fungi would break down the polyethylene.
“We believe that these organisms have metabolic flexibility, say, and this may be an evolutionary advantage,” said Attanayake.
“(These fungi) have to survive in the environment by making use of whatever is available,” he added.
Unfortunately, until now scientists didn’t know how the chemical pathways in fungi changed when they digested polyethylene, but they did know that wood-decomposing fungi use several oxidizing enzymes to digest both wood and plastic.
There are 430 species of fungi that digest plastic
Royal Botanical Gardens Kew in London revealed that currently there are more than 430 species of fungi and bacteria that have been found to break down plastic.
Identification and duplication of enzymes secreted by microorganisms is believed to help us deal with some of the 400 million tonnes of plastic waste produced each year. This new study is a small step toward gaining an understanding of how mushrooms can help tackle plastic pollution.
However, scientists have to look at how wood-decomposing fungi work in different conditions, such as in landfills, and whether they pose a threat to native trees.
That said, perhaps one day we will make use of these microorganisms, but to get to that stage there is still a lot of further research to be done.
Watch Video “Greenpeace Says Saudi Arabia Has No Ambitions to Overcome Global Plastic Waste”
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(pal/pal)
2023-07-29 02:00:39
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