Open Access Publication of the Month – Jan de Witt (IBG-1) et al.
5 February 2024
To encourage us all to broaden our horizons, each month the Central Library selects one open access publication from the JuSER publications portal to be featured in the newsletter of Forschungszentrum Jülich.
In the open access publication of the month, Jan de Witt (IBG-1) et al. write about the isolation of a novel bacterium that degrades plastic coatings.
The surface of fishing nets is often coated with a thin layer of polymers to improve the properties of the material. However, coatings increase the complexity of such materials, thus posing an obstacle to their recycling. In this study, de Witt et al. isolated and characterized Halopseudomonas formosensis FZJ from a local compost heap due to its ability to metabolize poly(ester-urethane) coatings. The study provides detailed insights into the microbial and enzymatic degradation of coatings, thus contributing to a more circular plastics economy by enabling bio-upcycling as a sustainable end-of-life solution for complex plastic materials.
This work resulted from a collaboration between three FZJ institutes: IBG-1, IMET, and ER-C-3. The paper has been published back-to-back with a corresponding article written by members of IMET and IBG-1, in which tools were developed for the genetic engineering of the genus Halopseudomonas.
The open access publication entitled “Biodegradation of poly(ester-urethane) coatings by Halopseudomonas formosensis” was published in the journal Microbial Biotechnology.
JuSER publications portal – Biodegradation of poly(ester-urethane) coatings by Halopseudomonas formosensis
JuSER publications portal – Halopseudomonas species: Cultivation and molecular genetic tools
Internet – Institute of Bio- and Geosciences – Biotechnology (IBG-1)
Internet – Ernst Ruska-Centre for Microscopy and Spectroscopy with Electrons – Structural Biology (ER-C-3)