Department of Microbiology | The University of Innsbruck, AUSTRIA
Superworms – a model system for plastic biodegradation
INTERREG – Cedric Project
The large amount of plastic waste produced globally, and the associated environmental impacts
and health risks, have triggered a renewed push for sustainable plastic recycling solutions. This
includes research on microbial driven plastic degradation, which is generating new targets for
protein engineering and has put biorecycling on the map as a future plastic-waste management
strategy. A promising microbial plastic degradation model system is the superworm (Zophobas
morio) and its gut microbiome. We have shown that superworms can survive on a sole diet of
the plastic polystyrene and are able to gain weight in the process. Microbial gut communities
changed considerably in superworms on a polystyrene diet, and we detected several encoded
enzymes with reported polystyrene and styrene degradation abilities. Our current efforts focus
on an improved understanding of microbial pathways involved in plastic degradation, through
multiomics approaches, targeting superworm gut bacteria. These results will facilitate biochemical
and structural enzyme characterizations and support our overall quest to develop enzymatic
biocatalysts for industrial plastic biorecycling.
International Seminar Programme
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