Authors:

Tommy Taylor

Date Created:

Not specified

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About Paper:

Plastic pollution is becoming a significant concern and has created a litany of ecological problems, many of which have adverse effects on human health. The nature of plastic materials ensure that they remain in the environment, undegraded, for upwards of hundreds of years and this is especially concerning given that much of the world's plastic remains in landfills - allowing for environmental degradation to release microplastics and other pollutants into the natural environment. For this reason, it has become increasingly necessary that alternative methods of eliminating or degrading plastic waste from the environment be 339 UNIVERSITY OF OREGON • 2024 UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM elucidated. Microbial degradation-the degradation of plastic by microscopic organisms - is showing particular promise as an eco-friendly method of eliminating plastic waste. In particular, the degradation of plastics by prokaryotes is a promising new avenue of bioremediation but current information and insights into future applications currently remain underexplored and unknown and this is of special concern given that the number of microbial species predicted to be capable of degrading plastic is rapidly increasing. Thus, the goal of this project is to then synthesize much of the major known biochemical, genetic, and taxonomical information regarding the degradation of plastics by prokaryotes and explore some of the existing literature regarding bioremediation in order to provide a comprehensive resource for future investigation of plastic bioremediation.

Source:

University of Oregon / 2024

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No topics listed

Co-authors:

Tommy Taylor