Scientists at Australia's University of Queensland have now discovered that superworms, the larvae of Zophobas morio darkling beetles, are eager to dine on polystyrene, and their gut enzymes could hold the key to higher recycling rates
This handout from the University of Queensland received on shows Dr Chris Rinke inside the UQs School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences. - Researchers at the University of Queensland have found a species of worm with an appetite for polystyrene could be the key to plastic recycling on a mass scale. Scientists discovered the common Zophobas morio superworm can eat through polystyrene, thanks to a bacterial enzyme in their gut. Photo by Handout / The University of Queensland / AFP
Packing material, disposable cutlery, CD cases: Polystyrene is among the most common forms of plastic, but recycling it isn't easy and the vast majority ends up in landfills or finds its way to the oceans where it threatens marine life.
Scientists at Australia's University of Queensland have now discovered that superworms, the larvae of Zophobas morio darkling beetles, are eager to dine on the substance, and their gut enzymes could hold the key to higher recycling rates.
Let’s take a look at what you need to know about these superworms:
Superworms grow up to two inches (five centimeters) and are bred as a food source for reptiles and birds, or even for humans in countries such as Thailand and Mexico.
Chris Rinke, who led a study that was published in the journal on Thursday, told AFP previous reports had shown that tiny waxworms and mealworms (which are also beetle larvae) had a good track record when it came to eating plastic, "so we hypothesized that the much larger superworms can eat even more."
Rinke and his team fed superworms different diets over a three week period, with some given polystyrene foam, commonly known as styrofoam, some bran, and others not fed at all.
Researchers found that while bran was superior to polystyrene — in terms of both the weight gained by the beetles and how active they were at the end of the three-week period — it wasn’t entirely unhealthy, at least, compared to the starvation die, as per Swaddle.
"We confirmed that superworms can survive on a sole polystyrene diet, and even gain a small amount of weight -- compared to a starvation control group -- which suggests that the worms can gain energy from eating polystyrene," Rinke said.
"They are basically like eating machines,” Rinke, who works at the University of Queensland in Australia told Scientific American.
This handout from the University of Queensland received on June 9, 2022 shows Zophobas morio darkling beetles -- whose larvae are known as "superworms". Photo by Handout / The University of Queensland / AFP
"Superworms are like mini recycling plants, shredding the polystyrene with their mouths and then feeding it to the bacteria in their gut," Rinke told BBC.
Although the polystyrene-reared superworms completed their life cycle, becoming pupae and then fully developed adult beetles, tests revealed a loss of microbial diversity in their guts and potential pathogens.
These findings suggested that while the bugs can survive on polystyrene, it is not a nutritious diet and impacts their health.
Next, the team used a technique called metagenomics to analyze the microbial gut community and find which gene-encoded enzymes were involved in degrading the plastic.
Australian National University researcher Colin Jackson, who wasn't involved with the study, told ABC: "This study goes a long way towards understanding how the bacteria in [the superworms'] gut do this at the molecular level."
Why is this a big deal?
Because of styrofoam’s threat the environment.
Not only is it non-biodegradable, as per the BBC, it takes around 500 years if not more to decompose.
Not only that, while it’s sitting under the sun in landfills — for centuries, that is — it produces toxic pollutants which contribute to global warming by depleting the ozone layer. In addition, it can leach chemicals into water bodies too, as per the report.
One way to put the findings to use would be to provide superworms with food waste or agricultural bioproducts to consume alongside polystyrene.
"This could be a way to improve the health of the worms and to deal with the large amount of food waste in Western countries," said Rinke.
But while breeding more worms for this purpose is possible, he envisages another route: creating recycling plants that mimic what the larvae do, which is to first shred the plastic in their mouths then digest it through bacterial enzymes.
"Ultimately, we want to take the superworms out of the equation," he said, and he now plans more research aimed at finding the most efficient enzymes, then enhancing them further through enzyme engineering.
Scientists discovered the common Zophobas morio superworm can eat through polystyrene, thanks to a bacterial enzyme in their gut. Photo by Christian Rinke / The University of Queensland / AFP
The breakdown products from that reaction could then be fed to other microbes to create high-value compounds, such as bioplastics, in what he hopes would become an economically viable "upcycling" approach.
Speaking to Scientific American, Uwe Bornscheuer, head of the biotechnology and enzyme catalysis department at the University of Greifswald in Germany, says he has been waiting for these kinds of data since it first became evident just more than a decade ago that some insect larvae could eat hard-to-degrade plastics—and could thus possibly help scientists find a way to use biodegradation to recycle them.
The newly published work is “the first solid study where they looked into the metagenome,” says Bornscheuer, who was not involved with the paper but had been following this area of research.
But Jackson says the commercial viability of such a process is in doubt.
"The scale-up and translation of research like this is always a challenge, which is magnified in the area of plastics by the incredible scale of the problem and the economics in terms of how cheap new plastic is to produce," Jackson told BBC
Even if it was viable, it would be far from a cure-all.
As this piece in the Swaddle notes: The fact, however, remains that superworm-enzymes are simply a cure to the issue of plastic pollution; what’s, perhaps, wiser is researching alternatives to styrofoam that aren’t nearly as hazardous to the environment. Even if scientists miraculously identify the right enzyme, find a way to begin mass-producing it, and kickstart the process of industrial recycling of polystyrene — all, in less than a week — it would still do nothing to address the fact that producing polystyrene itself creates toxic waste and contributes to global warming.”
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