Biodegradation of polymers: the role of bacteria and their enzymes

Plastika je materijal koji je vrlo koristan i ima široku primjenu, ali njezina sve veća proizvodnja i nepravilno odlaganje dovelo je do velikog zagađenja kopna, oceana i rijeka. Jedno od ekološki prihvatljivih rješenja ovog problema moglo bi biti korištenje bakterija koje razgrađuju plastiku. Otkrivene su mnoge takve bakterijske vrste te su one, njihovi enzimi i poznati mehanizmi razgradnje opisani u ovom radu. Također su opisani i načini na koje bi se navedene bakterije i njihovi enzimi mogli u budućnosti koristiti u svrhu recikliranja plastičnog otpada. Kako bi to bilo moguće ostvariti, potrebno je provesti još mnoga istraživanja usmjerena prema pronalaženju novih bakterija i enzima te genetičkoj modifikaciji već poznatih enzima u svrhu proizvodnje njihovih visoko aktivnih varijanti koje bi se mogle koristiti u recikliranju i razgradnji velike količine plastike.Plastic is a material that is very useful and has wide applications, but its increasing production and improper disposal has led to great pollution of land, oceans, and rivers. One of the environmentally friendly solutions to this problem could be to use plastic-degrading bacteria. A large number of such bacterial species have been discovered and they, their enzymes and known degradation mechanisms are described in this paper. Ways in which these bacteria and their enzymes could be used in the future for the purpose of recycling plastic waste are also described. In order to achieve this, much more research needs to be directed towards finding new bacteria and enzymes and genetically modifying already known enzymes for the purpose of producing their highly active variants and using them in recycling and degrading large amounts of plastic