Beijing, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- Polybutylene succinate (PBS) is an environmentally friendly plastic that can degrade in the terrestrial environment, but has limited natural biodegradation in the Marine environment. Newly released research by a Japanese team shows that they have found specific Marine bacteria that can degrade PBS, which could help in the future development of polymers that can degrade more easily in the Marine environment.

Since the early 1990s, PBS has been increasingly used in industrial plastics, such as mulch, compostable bags and catering packaging. This polymer ends up in the ocean along with many discarded plastics, but it does not biodegrade well in the Marine environment.

Researchers from Hokkaido University and other institutions in Japan analyzed the impact of microorganisms collected from natural seawater off the coast of Japan on PBS and found that three Marine vibrio bacteria can degrade PBS. The relevant paper has been published in the international journal Environmental Microbiology.

The researchers also found the enzyme that degrades PBS from these vibrio bacteria and, using molecular biology techniques, implanted the gene for this enzyme into common Escherichia coli to grow a highly purified enzyme for exploring the activity of this enzyme in degrading other polymers, among other things.

The researchers said that the study elucidated the degradation mechanism in seawater from the molecular level, which could help in the future development of new types of polymers that can be biodegradable in Marine life.

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