PMID- 35278547
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20220516
LR  - 20220516
IS  - 1879-1026 (Electronic)
IS  - 0048-9697 (Linking)
VI  - 828
DP  - 2022 Jul 1
TI  - Impacts of physical-chemical property of polyethylene on depolymerization and 
      biodegradation in yellow and dark mealworms with high purity microplastics.
PG  - 154458
LID - S0048-9697(22)01551-0 [pii]
LID - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.154458 [doi]
AB  - Yellow and dark mealworms (Tenebrio molitor and Tenebrio obscurus) biodegrade 
      commercial polyethylene (PE) materials at a high rate. We examined the impact of 
      physical and chemical properties on biodegradation using high purity 
      microplastics (MPs). These included high-density polyethylene (HDPE), low-density 
      polyethylene (LDPE), and linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE), all with 
      different weight average molecular weights (M(w)) and different crystallinity 
      degrees in T. molitor and T. obscurus larvae. The biodegradation extent in the 
      two mealworms was similar but strongly depended on the polymer type in sequence, 
      since LDPE > LLDPE> HDPE (with respective M(w) of 222.5, 110.5 and 182 kDa). When 
      LDPE MPs with M(w) of 0.84, 6.4 and 106.8 kDa and HDPE with M(w) of 52, 105 and 
      132.7 kDa were tested, the PE MPs with lower M(w) showed a greater extent of 
      depolymerization. The results of dominance analysis indicated that less branching 
      structure and higher crystallinity degree negatively impacted depolymerization 
      and biodegradation. Py-GC/MS analysis confirmed the breaking of the macromolecule 
      backbone as well as the formation of oxidized functional groups after all the 
      tested PE materials passed through the mealworm intestine. The results 
      demonstrated that molecular weight, PE type, branching, and crystallinity degree 
      significantly affect the biodegradation capability of PE by the mealworms, and 
      possibly by other biological systems as well.
CI  - Copyright (c) 2022. Published by Elsevier B.V.
FAU - Yang, Shan-Shan
AU  - Yang SS
AD  - State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of 
      Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China.
FAU - Ding, Meng-Qi
AU  - Ding MQ
AD  - State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of 
      Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China.
FAU - Ren, Xin-Ran
AU  - Ren XR
AD  - State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of 
      Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China.
FAU - Zhang, Zhi-Rong
AU  - Zhang ZR
AD  - College of Wildlife and Protected Area, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 
      150040, China.
FAU - Li, Mei-Xi
AU  - Li MX
AD  - State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of 
      Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China.
FAU - Zhang, Li-Li
AU  - Zhang LL
AD  - China Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Group, Beijing 100089, 
      China.
FAU - Pang, Ji-Wei
AU  - Pang JW
AD  - China Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Group, Beijing 100089, 
      China.
FAU - Chen, Cheng-Xin
AU  - Chen CX
AD  - State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of 
      Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China.
FAU - Zhao, Lei
AU  - Zhao L
AD  - State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of 
      Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China.
FAU - Xing, De-Feng
AU  - Xing DF
AD  - State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of 
      Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China.
FAU - Ren, Nan-Qi
AU  - Ren NQ
AD  - State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of 
      Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China.
FAU - Ding, Jie
AU  - Ding J
AD  - State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of 
      Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China. Electronic 
      address: dingjie123@hit.edu.cn.
FAU - Wu, Wei-Min
AU  - Wu WM
AD  - Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, William & Cloy Codiga Resource 
      Recovery Center, Center for Sustainable Development & Global Competitiveness, 
      Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA. Electronic address: 
      billwu@stanford.edu.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20220309
PL  - Netherlands
TA  - Sci Total Environ
JT  - The Science of the total environment
JID - 0330500
RN  - 0 (Microplastics)
RN  - 0 (Plastics)
RN  - 0 (Polystyrenes)
RN  - 9002-88-4 (Polyethylene)
SB  - IM
MH  - Animals
MH  - Biodegradation, Environmental
MH  - Larva/metabolism
MH  - Microplastics
MH  - Plastics/metabolism
MH  - Polyethylene/metabolism
MH  - Polystyrenes/metabolism
MH  - *Tenebrio/metabolism
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - Biodegradation
OT  - Crystallinity
OT  - Molecular weight
OT  - Polyethylene
OT  - Polymer types
OT  - Relative dominance analysis
COIS- Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known 
      competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared 
      to influence the work reported in this paper.
EDAT- 2022/03/13 06:00
MHDA- 2022/05/17 06:00
CRDT- 2022/03/12 20:10
PHST- 2021/12/25 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2022/03/04 00:00 [revised]
PHST- 2022/03/06 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2022/03/13 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2022/05/17 06:00 [medline]
PHST- 2022/03/12 20:10 [entrez]
AID - S0048-9697(22)01551-0 [pii]
AID - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.154458 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Sci Total Environ. 2022 Jul 1;828:154458. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.154458. 
      Epub 2022 Mar 9.