Plastic yearly production has surpassed the 300milliontons mark and recycling has
all but failed in constituting a viable solution for the disposal of plastic waste.
As these materials continue to accumulate in the environment, namely, in rivers and
oceans, in the form of macro-, meso-, micro- and nanoplastics, it becomes of the utmost
urgency to find new ways to curtail this environmental threat. Multiple efforts have
been made to identify and isolate microorganisms capable of utilizing synthetic polymers
and recent results point towards the viability of a solution for this problem based
on the biodegradation of plastics resorting to selected microbial strains. Herein,
the response of the fungus Zalerion maritimum to different times of exposition to
polyethylene (PE) pellets, in a minimum growth medium, was evaluated, based on the
quantified mass differences in both the fungus and the microplastic pellets used.
Additionally, molecular changes were assessed through attenuated total reflectance
Fourier transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR-ATR) and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
(NMR). Results showed that, under the tested conditions, Z. maritimum is capable of
utilizing PE, resulting in the decrease, in both mass and size, of the pellets. These
results indicate that this naturally occurring fungus may actively contribute to the
biodegradation of microplastics, requiring minimum nutrients.