Phanerochaete chrysosporium hyphae bio-crack, endocytose and metabolize plastic films

Lele Li; Zhi Guo; Xingpan Guo; Dazhuang Dong; Ting Fan; Lin Yao; Yuanyuan Zha; Jianyu Kong; Yaodan Dai; Tao Pan

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2025.137154

Phanerochaete chrysosporium hyphae bio-crack, endocytose and metabolize plastic films

J Hazard Mater. 2025 Jan 7:487:137154. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2025.137154. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Lele Li¹, Zhi Guo², Xingpan Guo³, Dazhuang Dong¹, Ting Fan⁴, Lin Yao¹, Yuanyuan Zha¹, Jianyu Kong¹, Yaodan Dai¹, Tao Pan¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, China; Anhui Ecological Civilization Research Institute, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, China.
² School of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, China; Anhui Ecological Civilization Research Institute, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, China. Electronic address: guozhi@hfut.edu.cn.
³ State Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research, East China Normal University, 500 Dongchuan Road, Shanghai 200241, China. Electronic address: xpguo@sklec.ecnu.edu.cn.
⁴ School of Resources and Environment, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei 230036, China.

PMID: 39798307
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2025.137154

Abstract

Numerous studies have focused on the effect and mechanism of plastic degradation; due to their high persistence, petroleum-based plastics are difficult for microbes to mineralize. Although such plastics have been demonstrated to be mineralized by white rot fungus, the reactions at the molecular level remain unknown. Here, we show the whole mineralization model of polyethylene film, that can be summarized as follows: 1) white rot fungus colonizes on polyethylene film, using additives as dissimilated carbon sources; 2) the fungus secretes extracellular enzymes protein, combining with stearic acid as electron donor, causes oxidation and cracking of polyethylene film; and 3) partial dissociated sub-microplastic debris access to cells, further oxidizes in sequential actions of intracellular enzymes, and ultimately mineralize via β-oxidation. Our study provides new insight into the causes of polyethylene film cracking degradation model.

Keywords: degradation; nano-hyperspectral; polyethylene; stearic acid; transcription levels; white rot fungus.