Plastic additives enrich diverse bacterial communities which show the hallmarks of plastic degradation

Tarnowski, Matthew; Stawowy, Andy; Sonnenschein, Eva C.

doi:10.1093/sumbio/qvag003

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Plastic additives enrich diverse bacterial communities which show the hallmarks of plastic degradation

Matthew Tarnowski, Andy Stawowy, Eva C. Sonnenschein

Sustainable Microbiology, Volume: 3, Issue: 1

Swansea University Authors: Matthew Tarnowski, Andy Stawowy, Eva C. Sonnenschein

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DOI (Published version): 10.1093/sumbio/qvag003

Abstract

Plastics contain a variety of chemical additives that enhance their performance but often pose environmental risks due to their persistence and leaching. Microbial degradation offers a promising strategy to mitigate these pollutants, yet efficient methods to identify active degraders remain limited....

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Published in:	Sustainable Microbiology
ISSN:	2755-1970
Published:	Oxford University Press (OUP) 2026
Online Access:	Check full text
URI:	https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa71566

first_indexed	2026-03-05T16:52:16Z
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spelling	v2 71566 2026-03-05 Plastic additives enrich diverse bacterial communities which show the hallmarks of plastic degradation f9d373dd511c85aae88d33cb57b1fff9 Matthew Tarnowski Matthew Tarnowski true false 90c42f7c6a259dfdf23df8886d5df4a5 Andy Stawowy Andy Stawowy true false f6a4027578a15ea3e6453a54b849c686 0000-0001-6959-5100 Eva C. Sonnenschein Eva C. Sonnenschein true false 2026-03-05 Plastics contain a variety of chemical additives that enhance their performance but often pose environmental risks due to their persistence and leaching. Microbial degradation offers a promising strategy to mitigate these pollutants, yet efficient methods to identify active degraders remain limited. This project aims to combine biochemical assays with 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing to screen microbial communities for plastic additive biodegradation. Inocula from natural (Chessel Bay, Swansea Bay) and anthropogenic (Wastewater Plant, Recycling Plant) environments were enriched for 22 days, using di(2-ethylhexyl) terephthalate (DEHT) and tetradecane and compared to negative controls. We adapted high-throughput assays to measure community-level growth, death, redox, and esterase activity. DEHT yielded the highest growth, while tetradecane enhanced redox activity. 16S rRNA amplicon sequence analysis identified 957 amplicon sequence variants across 36 cultures. PERMANOVA showed that the substrate explained 39%–63% of the variance in community structure. Both additives enriched bacterial families known to degrade plastics (e.g. Nocardiaceae, which correlated with esterase activity). Other bacterial families not previously associated with plastic degradation (e.g. Vermiphiliaceae) highlight potential for plastic and additive biodegradation. These results demonstrate that diverse environmental microbiomes can metabolize ester- and alkane-based plastic additives. Our methods enable scalable screening of biodegradative communities for bioremediation applications. Journal Article Sustainable Microbiology 3 1 Oxford University Press (OUP) 2755-1970 microbiome, amplicon sequencing, microbial biotechnology, high-throughput, enrichment culture, plastic degradation 28 1 2026 2026-01-28 10.1093/sumbio/qvag003 COLLEGE NANME COLLEGE CODE Swansea University External research funder(s) paid the OA fee (includes OA grants disbursed by the Library) This project has received funding from Pathfinder Open 2022, a European Innovation Council (EIC) work programme that is part of Horizon Europe (grant agreement no. 101099528), from the UK Innovation Funding Agency (UKRI) (reference no. 10062709), from the Swansea University Greatest Need Fund and by UK Research and Innovation Building a Green Future strategic theme (grant no. UKRI239). The Supercomputing Wales project is part funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) via Welsh Government . 2026-03-05T16:56:48.2848928 2026-03-05T16:48:10.3931081 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences Matthew Tarnowski 1 Andy Stawowy 2 Eva C. Sonnenschein 0000-0001-6959-5100 3 71566__36362__7d737ee5c44f4c10831d9d720e42c7e5.pdf 71566.VoR.pdf 2026-03-05T16:52:50.8796395 Output 2467633 application/pdf Version of Record true © The Author(s)2026. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY). true eng https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title	Plastic additives enrich diverse bacterial communities which show the hallmarks of plastic degradation
spellingShingle	Plastic additives enrich diverse bacterial communities which show the hallmarks of plastic degradation Matthew Tarnowski Andy Stawowy Eva C. Sonnenschein
title_short	Plastic additives enrich diverse bacterial communities which show the hallmarks of plastic degradation
title_full	Plastic additives enrich diverse bacterial communities which show the hallmarks of plastic degradation
title_fullStr	Plastic additives enrich diverse bacterial communities which show the hallmarks of plastic degradation
title_full_unstemmed	Plastic additives enrich diverse bacterial communities which show the hallmarks of plastic degradation
title_sort	Plastic additives enrich diverse bacterial communities which show the hallmarks of plastic degradation
author_id_str_mv	f9d373dd511c85aae88d33cb57b1fff9 90c42f7c6a259dfdf23df8886d5df4a5 f6a4027578a15ea3e6453a54b849c686
author_id_fullname_str_mv	f9d373dd511c85aae88d33cb57b1fff9_*_Matthew Tarnowski 90c42f7c6a259dfdf23df8886d5df4a5__Andy Stawowy f6a4027578a15ea3e6453a54b849c686_**_Eva C. Sonnenschein
author	Matthew Tarnowski Andy Stawowy Eva C. Sonnenschein
author2	Matthew Tarnowski Andy Stawowy Eva C. Sonnenschein
format	Journal article
container_title	Sustainable Microbiology
container_volume	3
container_issue	1
publishDate	2026
institution	Swansea University
issn	2755-1970
doi_str_mv	10.1093/sumbio/qvag003
publisher	Oxford University Press (OUP)
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description	Plastics contain a variety of chemical additives that enhance their performance but often pose environmental risks due to their persistence and leaching. Microbial degradation offers a promising strategy to mitigate these pollutants, yet efficient methods to identify active degraders remain limited. This project aims to combine biochemical assays with 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing to screen microbial communities for plastic additive biodegradation. Inocula from natural (Chessel Bay, Swansea Bay) and anthropogenic (Wastewater Plant, Recycling Plant) environments were enriched for 22 days, using di(2-ethylhexyl) terephthalate (DEHT) and tetradecane and compared to negative controls. We adapted high-throughput assays to measure community-level growth, death, redox, and esterase activity. DEHT yielded the highest growth, while tetradecane enhanced redox activity. 16S rRNA amplicon sequence analysis identified 957 amplicon sequence variants across 36 cultures. PERMANOVA showed that the substrate explained 39%–63% of the variance in community structure. Both additives enriched bacterial families known to degrade plastics (e.g. Nocardiaceae, which correlated with esterase activity). Other bacterial families not previously associated with plastic degradation (e.g. Vermiphiliaceae) highlight potential for plastic and additive biodegradation. These results demonstrate that diverse environmental microbiomes can metabolize ester- and alkane-based plastic additives. Our methods enable scalable screening of biodegradative communities for bioremediation applications.
published_date	2026-01-28T16:56:49Z
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Plastic additives enrich diverse bacterial communities which show the hallmarks of plastic degradation

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