A "plastic-eating" mushroom discovered in the Amazon

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    It seems incredible, but a group of students and researchers on a scientific expedition in the Amazon rainforest would have discovered a fungus capable of intervening in the degradation process of plastics. We are not surprised, however, that the "plastic-eating mushroom" was discovered in what is considered a real paradise of biodiversity, as the latest mapping of the South American rainforest shows us.



    He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him

    It seems incredible, but a group of students and researchers on a scientific expedition in the Amazon rainforest would have discovered a fungus capable of intervening in the process of degradation of plastics. However, it is not surprising that the "Plastic-eating mushroom" has been discovered within what is considered a real paradise of biodiversity, as the latest mapping of the South American rainforest shows us.



    The discovery took place thanks to the expedition that Yale University organizes annually to allow students to experience the knowledge acquired during their studies directly in the field. The university students, led by professor Scott Strobel, professor of molecular biochemistry at the US institute, ventured into the dense rain vegetation of theEcuador to study the microorganisms present on plants.

    They have thus come to identify a mushroom, whose existence was so far ignored by the scientific world, able to feed on polyurethane, a polymer used for the production of various materials used for example for the manufacture of padding for mattresses and sofas, elastics, gaskets and heat-insulating plates, whose decomposition, once transformed into waste, had so far taken several decades.

    The aspect that interests the researchers most is that the fungus in question belongs to the species Pestalotiopsis microspora, would be able to survive feeding exclusively on polyurethane thanks to a process that would take place exclusively in conditions of absence of oxygen, that is, in an anaerobic environment that could be very similar to that present at the bottom of landfills.

    The hope of scholars lies precisely in the fact of being able to apply the discovery to facilitate and speed up the degradation of waste containing such material. Those enzymes that allow the fungus to feed, in the true sense of the word, on polyurethane have already been isolated in the laboratory. In the future, waste compactors could be inhabited by mushrooms like this one. The results of the research carried out so far have been published by the authoritative scientific journal AEM - Applied and Environmental Microbiology.



    Marta Albè

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