Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology

The Korean Society for Microbiology and Biotechnology (한국미생물·생명공학회)
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Dual Application of p-Nitrophenol Alkanoate-Based Assay for Soil Selection and Screening of Microbial Strains for Bioplastic Degradation

  • Nara Shin (Department of Biological Engineering, College of Engineering, Konkuk University) ;
  • Jinok Oh (Department of Biological Engineering, College of Engineering, Konkuk University) ;
  • Suwon Kim (Department of Biological Engineering, College of Engineering, Konkuk University) ;
  • Yeda Lee (Department of Biological Engineering, College of Engineering, Konkuk University) ;
  • Yuni Shin (Department of Biological Engineering, College of Engineering, Konkuk University) ;
  • Suhye Choi (Department of Biological Engineering, College of Engineering, Konkuk University) ;
  • Shashi Kant Bhatia (Department of Biological Engineering, College of Engineering, Konkuk University) ;
  • Yung-Hun Yang (Department of Biological Engineering, College of Engineering, Konkuk University)
  • Received : 2024.03.11
  • Accepted : 2024.05.17
  • Published : 2024.07.28
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Abstract

With an increase in the commercialization of bioplastics, the importance of screening for plastic-degrading strains and microbes has emerged. Conventional methods for screening such strains are time-consuming and labor-intensive. Therefore, we suggest a method for quickly and effectively screening plastic-degrading microbial strains through dual esterase assays for soil and isolated strains, using p-nitrophenyl alkanoates as substrates. To select microbe-abundant soil, the total amount of phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs) included in each soil sample was analyzed, and esterase assays were performed for each soil sample to compare the esterase activity of each soil. In addition, by analyzing the correlation coefficients and sensitivity between the amount of PLFAs and the degree of esterase activity according to the substrate, it was confirmed that substrate pNP-C2 is the most useful index for soil containing several microbes having esterase activity. In addition, esterase assays of the isolated strains allowed us to select the most active strain as the degrading strain, and 16S rRNA results confirmed that it was Bacillus sp. N04 showed the highest degradation activity for polybutylene succinate (PBS) as measured in liquid culture for 7 days, with a degradation yield of 99%. Furthermore, Bacillus sp. N04 showed degradation activity against various bioplastics. We propose the dual application of p-nitrophenyl alkanoates as an efficient method to first select the appropriate soil and then to screen for plastic-degrading strains in it, and conclude that pNP-C2 in particular, is a useful indicator.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

The authors acknowledge the KU Research Professor Program of Konkuk University, Seoul, South Korea. This work was supported by the National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea, the Ministry of Science and ICT [grant numbers NRF-2022R1A2C2003138, NRF-2022M3I3A1082545] and the R&D Program of MOTIE/KEIT [Grant number 20009508 and 20014350].

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