Authors:
Khandkar Shaharina Hossain, Sharnali Das, Sushmita Kundu, Shahriar Afrin, Tauhidur Rahman Nurunnabi
and S.M. Mahbubur Rahman* ,Bangladesh |
Abstract:
Continuous accumulation of plastic in the environment causes threat to environment as well as to
human. In order to find the microbes that can degrade polythene, sample was collected from
dump yard, Khulna City Corporation, Bangladesh. Screening of polythene degrading bacteria
was done by analyzing the growth in Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) powder. Thirty one
bacterial isolates were obtained using synthetic media containing LDPE powder as sole carbon
source. Among them, 10 bacterial isolates were found to be polythene degrading through weight
loss of polythene and named as PDB. These bacterial isolates were characterized both
morphologically and biochemically. Gram staining test revealed the 8 isolates were Gram
positive and 2 were Gram Negative. The biomass weight (?g/ml) was measured at 3 different
concentrations of LDPE powder; the biomass was increased for all the bacterial isolates up to
10th day and drastically reduced at 15th day. The pH of the culture increased for 8 isolates but 2
isolates (PDB-2 &11) showed reduced pH than that of control (pH 7.0). The weight loss (%) of
polyethylene was estimated and found that all bacterial isolates reduced polythene weight ranged
from 0.42 to 3.17% and 1.31 to 3.47%, respectively, at 5 and 10 days of culture. |
