Scientists have discovered a caterpillar feeding on plastic

Written by admincli

Friday, 16 June 2017 07:32

Scientists have discovered a form of caterpillars, which has the ability to degrade polyethylene - one of the most used types of plastics, which is a serious air pollution.

Larvae of large wax moth, Galleria mellonella, hives are a scourge throughout Europe. In the wild, they live as parasites of bees in the colonies. Wax moth lays its eggs inside the hives, of which hatch into larvae that feed on bees wax - hence the name.

The discovery was made by accident when Federica Bertokkini (Federica Bertocchini), a member of the research team and an amateur beekeeper, remove parasites from cells in her hive. Worms are temporarily stored in an ordinary plastic shopping bag, which was soon dotted with holes.

Federica working at the Institute of Biomedicine and Biotechnology of Cantabria (Spain), together with colleagues from the University of Cambridge conducted additional experiments. Approximately 100 larvae were placed in vlastikovy package. The holes in it began to appear after 40 minutes, and after 12 hours Weight packet decreased by 82 mg. Scientists note that a decomposition rate can be considered extremely high.

Caterpillars do not just eat the plastic, they change its chemical composition and destroy the polymer chains.

As the study of the processes at the molecular level, it is hoped to develop a biotechnological solution on an industrial scale for the management of plastic waste.

http://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(17)30231-2

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