Isotactic polypropylene biodegradation by a microbial community: physicochemical characterization of metabolites produced.

From a selective enrichment culture prepared with different soil samples on starch-containing polyethylene we isolated four microaerophilic microbial communities able to grow on this kind of plastic with no additional carbon source. One consortium, designated community 3S, was tested with pure isotactic polypropylene to determine whether the consortium was able to degrade this polymer. Polypropylene strips were incubated for 5 months in a mineral medium containing sodium lactate and glucose in screw-cap bottles. Dichloromethane crude extracts of the cultures revealed that the weight of extracted materials increased with incubation time, while the polypropylene sample weight decreased. The extracted materials were characterized by performing chromatographic and spectral analyses (thin-layer chromatography, liquid chromatography, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, infrared spectrometry, nuclear magnetic resonance). Three main fractions were detected and analyzed; a mixture of hydrocarbons at different degrees of functionalization was found together with a mixture of aromatic esters, as the plasticizers usually added to polyolefinic structures.

Anaerobic facultative bacteria isolated from the gut of rabbits fed different diets.

Anaerobic facultative bacteria colonizing the intestinal tract of conventional rabbits fed three different diets (standard pellet, hay and pellet/hay mixture) were enumerated in brain heart infusion agar. Colony counts recovered from homogenized samples of small intestine, caecum and rectum differed with reference to the diet given. Among anaerobic groups, identified from rabbit fed pellet/hay mixture, Enterococci (E. faecalis, E. avium, E. faecium and E. durans) represented the predominant flora. Enterobacters (E. cloacae and E. aerogenes) accounted for about 10 to 25% of the bacteria in the rectum and colon respectively, whereas Staphylococci (S. intermedius, S. epidermidis and S. lentus) represented 11% of the bacteria isolated from colon.