Plastic pollution has become the major global environmental problem due to the extensive accumulation and recalcitrance of synthetic polymers in terrestrial and aquatic environments. Traditional methods of plastic waste degradation, such as landfilling, incineration, and mechanical recycling, have various environmental limitations, like the production of more harmful toxic components, secondary pollutants, and inefficient waste handling. Therefore, current research is focused on more promising and environmentally sustainable alternatives for plastic waste management by microbial biodegradation. This review includes various bacterial and fungal enzymes such as PETase, MHETase, cutinase, laccase, and polyesterase associated with major stages of microbial plastic degradation, including biodeterioration, biofragmentation, bioassimilation, and mineralization. The degradation mechanism of synthetic polymers like polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyurethane (PU), polystyrene (PS), and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) are discussed along with the importance of analytical validation techniques such as FTIR, SEM, GC–MS, respirometry assays, and stable isotope probing for accurately confirming biodegradation. Additionally, the existing limitations of poor degrading efficiency, polymer recalcitrance, mixed plastic waste complexity, scaling challenges, and the gap between laboratory results and environmental application are comprehensively analyzed. Overall, the review provides a comprehensive overview of microbial and enzymatic plastic biodegradation and highlights recent advancements in metagenomics, enzyme engineering, synthetic biology, and multi‐omics approaches that helps in improving the efficiency and large‐scale industrial feasibility of microbial plastic degradation.
Fungal cell factories serve as a robust platform for sustainable biomanufacturing, owing to their unparalleled metabolic diversity, enzymatic properties, and resilience to diverse environmental conditions. Recent advances in fungal biotechnology have vastly enhanced the potential for fungi to be used in the production of renewable bioenergy and functional biomaterials. Concurrent advances in systems biology, metabolic engineering, and synthetic biology have enabled the fine-tuning of metabolic fluxes to facilitate the enhanced biosynthesis of biofuels, including bioethanol, biodiesel, biogas, and biohydrogen, as well as mycelium-derived biopolymers. The lignocellulolytic fungi like Trichoderma reesei, Aspergillus niger, and Phanerochaete chrysosporium have been the main organisms of focus with respect to engineering, which enhances hydrolytic enzyme excretion, growth on substrates, and redox balance in these fungi. This engineering work parallels a new ability in omics technologies and CRISPR–Cas genome editing, permitting the facilitation and identification of regulation of biosynthetic gene clusters responsible for lipid accumulation, secondary metabolite production, and nanomaterial synthesis in fungi. Furthermore, new fungal-derived biomaterials have been reported, such as chitosan, β-glucans, and mycelium composites, which have been advanced as biodegradable alternatives to plastics and building materials derived from petroleum. This review critically reviews some of the more recent developments in respect of the reprogramming of fungal metabolism, process intensification strategies and integrated biorefinery applications. This will illustrate the convergence of fungal systems biology with the principles of circular bioeconomy and point out the technological, economic, and regulatory bottlenecks which need to be overcome to fully realise the potential of fungi as the biofactories of the future for the sustainable production of energy and materials.
Babita Thakur, Sukhminderjit Kaur, Ranjan Singh et al.· Journal of Pure and Applied...· 0 citations