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Biochemical Characterization of Plastic-Flocculating Biofilms Produced by Aspergillus sp.


EMSL Project ID
60824

Abstract

Microplastics represent an abundant but polluting source of waste carbon that is now ubiquitous within aquatic and terrestrial environments. A key challenge to its reuse is its capture and concentration from dilute waste streams. Existing approaches preferentially accumulate only certain plastics with limited efficiency. However, recent work in our lab has isolated a novel strain of Aspergillus that creates a strong and adhesive extracellular biofilm that quickly scavenges and accumulates any microplastic from dilute suspensions. This biofilm flocculates plastics ranging from polyethylene to polyethylene terephthalate in a number of form factors and sizes (~30 μm – ~2 cm). More importantly, plastic recovery is essentially complete (~100% recovery) within seconds. We hypothesize that plastics flocculation is driven by the secretion of hydrophobic proteins in the extracellular matrix that bind microplastic particles within it. To evaluate this hypothesis, we request EMSL support in a limited-scope project to pursue spatial proteomics and mass spectrometry imaging of this matrix along with X-ray computed tomography to generate a chemophysical model of plastics binding and accumulation, which will be evaluated in a subsequent project. In so doing, we aim to generate molecular insight into microbial plastics accumulation and inform strategies to improve microbial access to microplastics for enhanced degradation and upcycling.

Project Details

Project type
Limited Scope
Start Date
2024-02-05
End Date
N/A
Status
Active

Team

Principal Investigator

Kevin Solomon
Institution
University of Delaware

Co-Investigator(s)

Mark Blenner
Institution
University of Delaware

Team Members

Ross Klauer
Institution
University of Delaware