Fungi Discovered In The Amazon Will Eat Indestructible Plastic

[TalkingDog]

http://www.fastcoexist.com/1679201/fungi-discovered-in-the-amazon-will-eat-your-plastic

... The group searched for plants, and then cultured the microorganisms within the plant tissue. As it turns out, they brought back a fungus new to science with a voracious appetite for a global waste problem: polyurethane.

The common plastic is used for everything from garden hoses to shoes and truck seats. Once it gets into the trash stream, it persists for generations. Anyone alive today is assured that their old garden hoses and other polyurethane trash will still be here to greet his or her great, great grandchildren. Unless something eats it.

The fungi, Pestalotiopsis microspora, is the first anyone has found to survive on a steady diet of polyurethane alone and--even more surprising--do this in an anaerobic (oxygen-free) environment that is close to the condition at the bottom of a landfill.

Student Pria Anand recorded the microbe’s remarkable behavior and Jonathan Russell isolated the enzymes that allow the organism to degrade plastic as its food source. The Yale team published their findings in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology late last year concluding the microbe is "a promising source of biodiversity from which to screen for metabolic properties useful for bioremediation." In the future, our trash compactors may simply be giant fields of voracious fungi.

/snip

Hooray Nature!!!

[NNN0LHI]

1. Before we go hog wild with this stuff lets find out what else it eats first before we release it

Just saying ...

[Occulus]

10. Single-sentence snip from the article:

"The fungi, Pestalotiopsis microspora, is the first anyone has found to survive on a steady diet of polyurethane alone and--even more surprising--do this in an anaerobic (oxygen-free) environment that is close to the condition at the bottom of a landfill. "

Well, now. That is... a happy surprise, isn't it?

[NNN0LHI]

11. I read that

Sounds like it has the ability "to survive on a steady diet of polyurethane alone", but it doesn't say what happens if it runs out of that food source or decides it likes something else better.

We have had all kinds of different plants and animals introduced into this country and at the time everyone thought they were the best thing since sliced bread. Wasn't long and we discovered we made some pretty bad mistakes.

Google "invasive species", once.

Going to take more than one sentence to convince me of anything.

Don

[The Genealogist]

17. "Invasive Species" is what I was thinking while reading this

Here in Missouri, for instance, a dialog has opened up on the Bradford Pear. Builders and landscapers love to put in Bradford Pears; they are cheap, superficially pretty, and grow fast (they also reek and attract filthy birds, but I digress). They are also everywhere. Thing is, they don't belong here. I think the come originally from east Asia. And supposedly trees that were being planted were sterile. Now, Bradford Pears are starting to pop up in the wild. Birds and other animals eat whatever fruit the trees produce and Bradford Pears and the trees are spreading. Worse yet, they are interbreeding with native pears. If this isn't a compelling example, ask some southerners about kudzu. I lived in Florida for a while, kudzu was rampant. Again, it does not belong in the US, again, I think it is an Asian import. I think Kudzu was brought in, at least in part, to help with erosion; its dense, fast growing vines would do that. They also overgrow everything. Kudzu chokes to death the native plants and even trees. It grows so fast it will overgrow roads. I have seen whole buildings that are totally covered in, top to bottom. I lived in Florida for 6 years, and have seen little else like kudzu.

Just two examples. There are MANY others. Now, as NNOLHI pointd out, the article "oesn't say what happens if it runs out of that food source or decides it likes something else better." Do the people who are recommending this species be used for the purpose of consuming our waste plastic even know? If so, why aren't they saying? Would the species get into drinking water, evolve, and decide that it likes humans, eating us from the inside out? Will it suck nutrients out of the soil as it evolves? I don't like the sound of it at all.

[NNN0LHI]

20. Used to be friends with an old guy from New Zealand

Talked to him every day on the radio. Haven't talked to him in years. Know what his main outdoor hobby was? Shooting feral cats. When he told me this I was appalled. Then he explained it to me. He liked cats as much as I do. He liked them a lot.

Problem was the native birds there had no natural enemies so many never needed to ever fly to escape a predator so they never flew. They had evolved into flightless birds. He said they didn't know what a predator was. He said these birds would walk right up to a human because they had never really learned fear was.

Once people began importing cats there and some got loose and into the wild it became a horror show for these birds. Many were/are on the verge of extinction.

I like cats as much as the next person but I sure wouldn't want them running around there under those conditions either.

Don

[Viva_La_Revolution]

18. and what it converts the plastic into..

everything produces waste.

[HopeHoops]

2. Any chance it will show up as atheletes' foot in Romney's shower?

[TalkingDog]

4. I wonder if it could handle that much plastic....

n/t

[HopeHoops]

5. Yeah, that could be a problem. He's got more plastic in him than a Mattel factory.

[Chuuku Davis]

3. Very Cool

That is AWESOME!

Hope it can go commercial

[Nuclear Unicorn]

6. Mitt Romney better hide his hair. n/t

[Occulus]

7. Wow.

Incredible.

[Speck Tater]

8. So let's airlift all our plastic trash to the Amazon. The place is huge!

We won't run out of Amazon landfill space for decades!

[piratefish08]

9. fungi can also eat and concentrate radiation - they thrive in Chernobyl.

mushrooms are fucking amazing in so many ways......

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/science/radiation-loving-fungi-can-remove-toxic-waste-62299.html

[raouldukelives]

12. If this stuff ever reaches Hollywood

It's all over.

[pnwest]

13. my question is what the hell has it been eating

up til now? Not a lot of polyurethane laying around in the Amazon, I'm guessing, so clearly it does NOT subsist on a diet of that alone...

[hedgehog]

15. Good point

[TalkingDog]

16. Not so much that it does, but that it CAN. I point you to the 17 y.o

who ate nothing but chicken nuggets for 15 years of her life.

Yes, she got sick eventually.

This has the potential to be a good low cost, non chemical solution to the plastic problem.

[Dreamer Tatum]

14. McDonalds may have found its next hamburger additive. nt

[Snake Alchemist]

19. I foresee no horrible consequences with using the Andromeda Strain. nt

[Locrian]

23. welcome

>>I foresee no horrible consequences with using the Andromeda Strain

I for one welcome our new fungi overlords...

[LeftinOH]

21. This fungi is a danger to Corvettes everywhere. n/t

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

25. And celebrities everywhere as well. nt

[Evasporque]

22. it also eats higher brain functions....

ZOMBIE FUNGI!

[Duer 157099]

24. Let's hope the waste product is gold

Could be, you never know.

[dickthegrouch]

26. It will be for whoever commercialises it

Until they have to pay the bill for all the useful plastic things the fungi that escape from their landfill eat.
But in the best tradition of capitalism, the bailout will be publicly funded, while the exploiters laugh all the way to the bank.