:
Since the last few decades, the promiscuous and uncontrolled use of plastics led to the accumulation
of millions of tons of plastic waste in the terrestrial and marine environment. It elevated
the risk of environmental pollution and climate change. The concern arises more due to the reckless
and unscientific disposal of plastics containing high molecular weight polymers, viz., polystyrene,
polyamide, polyvinylchloride, polypropylene, polyurethane, and polyethylene, etc. which are very difficult
to degrade. Thus, the focus is now paid to search for efficient, eco-friendly, low-cost waste management
technology. Of them, degradation of non-degradable synthetic polymer using diverse microbial
agents, viz., bacteria, fungi, and other extremophiles become an emerging option. So far, very few
microbial agents and their secreted enzymes have been identified and characterized for plastic degradation,
but with low efficiency. It might be due to the predominance of uncultured microbial species,
which consequently remain unexplored from the respective plastic degrading milieu. To overcome this
problem, metagenomic analysis of microbial population engaged in the plastic biodegradation is advisable
to decipher the microbial community structure and to predict their biodegradation potential in
situ. Advancements in sequencing technologies and bioinformatics analysis allow the rapid metagenome
screening that helps in the identification of total microbial community and also opens up the
scope for mining genes or enzymes (hydrolases, laccase, etc.) engaged in polymer degradation. Further,
the extraction of the core microbial population and their adaptation, fitness, and survivability can
also be deciphered through comparative metagenomic study. It will help to engineer the microbial
community and their metabolic activity to speed up the degradation process.
A pyrosequencing-based metagenomic study of methane-producing microbial community in solid-state biogas reactor