Dr. Richa Priyadarshini, Associate Professor from the Department of Life Sciences, School of Natural Sciences (SNS), Shiv Nadar Institution of Eminence is certainly #ResearchingTheNext. Dr. Priyadarshini and her team discovered a strain of plastic-eating bacteria in the Greater Noida region that explores the possibility of a more environment-friendly recycling alternative. The revolutionary discovery was published in the prestigious Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Advances.
The bacterial strains discovered - Exiguobacterium sibiricum strain DR11 and Exiguobacterium undae strain DR14 - have the potential to decompose polystyrene, a key component in single-use plastics (SUPs) such as packaging material, disposable cups, cutlery, etc. The research indicates upon coming into contact with polystyrene, the bacteria use it as a carbon source and create biofilms. This alters the physical properties of polystyrene and initiates a process of natural degradation with the release of hydrolyzing enzymes to further break the polymer chains.