Bacterium that degrades and assimilates poly(ethylene terephthalate) published
On Mar. 11, 2016, Japanese scientists announced they had discovered a species of bacteria that was “eating” its way through plastic bottles.
Normally, bacteria spend their time absorbing dead organic matter, but Ideonella sakaiensis has developed a taste for a certain type of plastic called polyethylene terephthalate (PET). The study was published in Science.
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Source: Science
Credit: Microscopy Image: Courtesy Claudia S. L�pez, PhD, Director of the Multiscale Microscopy Core at Oregon Health & Science University.
