PMID- 24056469
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20140604
LR  - 20211021
IS  - 1098-5336 (Electronic)
IS  - 0099-2240 (Print)
IS  - 0099-2240 (Linking)
VI  - 79
IP  - 23
DP  - 2013 Dec
TI  - Fungal communities associated with the biodegradation of polyester polyurethane 
      buried under compost at different temperatures.
PG  - 7313-24
LID - 10.1128/AEM.02536-13 [doi]
AB  - Plastics play an essential role in the modern world due to their low cost and 
      durability. However, accumulation of plastic waste in the environment causes 
      wide-scale pollution with long-lasting effects, making plastic waste management 
      expensive and problematic. Polyurethanes (PUs) are heteropolymers that made up 
      ca. 7% of the total plastic production in Europe in 2011. Polyester PUs in 
      particular have been extensively reported as susceptible to microbial 
      biodegradation in the environment, particularly by fungi. In this study, we 
      investigated the impact of composting on PUs, as composting is a microbially rich 
      process that is increasingly being used for the processing of green waste and 
      food waste as an economically viable alternative to landfill disposal. PU coupons 
      were incubated for 12 weeks in fresh compost at 25 degrees C, 45 degrees C, and 50 degrees C to emulate 
      the thermophilic and maturation stages of the composting process. Incubation at 
      all temperatures caused significant physical deterioration of the polyester PU 
      coupons and was associated with extensive fungal colonization. Terminal 
      restriction fragment length polymorphism (TRFLP) analysis and pyrosequencing of 
      the fungal communities on the PU surface and in the surrounding compost revealed 
      that the population on the surface of PU was different from the surrounding 
      compost community, suggesting enrichment and selection. The most dominant fungi 
      identified from the surfaces of PU coupons by pyrosequencing was Fusarium solani 
      at 25 degrees C, while at both 45 degrees C and 50 degrees C, Candida ethanolica was the dominant 
      species. The results of this preliminary study suggest that the composting 
      process has the potential to biodegrade PU waste if optimized further in the 
      future.
FAU - Zafar, Urooj
AU  - Zafar U
AD  - Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom.
FAU - Houlden, Ashley
AU  - Houlden A
FAU - Robson, Geoffrey D
AU  - Robson GD
LA  - eng
SI  - GENBANK/JX996129
SI  - GENBANK/JX996130
SI  - GENBANK/JX996131
SI  - GENBANK/JX996132
SI  - GENBANK/JX996133
SI  - GENBANK/JX996134
SI  - GENBANK/JX996135
SI  - GENBANK/JX996136
SI  - GENBANK/JX996137
SI  - GENBANK/JX996139
SI  - GENBANK/JX996140
SI  - GENBANK/KF314698
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20130920
PL  - United States
TA  - Appl Environ Microbiol
JT  - Applied and environmental microbiology
JID - 7605801
RN  - 0 (DNA, Fungal)
RN  - 0 (Polyurethanes)
RN  - 0 (Soil)
SB  - IM
MH  - *Biodiversity
MH  - DNA, Fungal/chemistry/genetics
MH  - Fungi/*classification/genetics/*metabolism
MH  - Molecular Sequence Data
MH  - Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length
MH  - Polyurethanes/*metabolism
MH  - Sequence Analysis, DNA
MH  - *Soil
MH  - *Soil Microbiology
MH  - Temperature
PMC - PMC3837764
EDAT- 2013/09/24 06:00
MHDA- 2014/06/05 06:00
PMCR- 2014/06/01
CRDT- 2013/09/24 06:00
PHST- 2013/09/24 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2013/09/24 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2014/06/05 06:00 [medline]
PHST- 2014/06/01 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - AEM.02536-13 [pii]
AID - 02536-13 [pii]
AID - 10.1128/AEM.02536-13 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Appl Environ Microbiol. 2013 Dec;79(23):7313-24. doi: 10.1128/AEM.02536-13. Epub 
      2013 Sep 20.