Molecular docking and metagenomics assisted mitigation of microplastic pollution

authored by

Dinesh Parida, Konica Katare, Atmaadeep Ganguly, Disha Chakraborty, Oisi Konar, Regina Nogueira, Kiran Bala

Abstract

Microplastics, tiny, flimsy, and direct progenitors of principal and subsidiary plastics, cause environmental degradation in aquatic and terrestrial entities. Contamination concerns include irrevocable impacts, potential cytotoxicity, and negative health effects on mortals. The detection, recovery, and degradation strategies of these pollutants in various biota and ecosystems, as well as their impact on plants, animals, and humans, have been a topic of significant interest. But the natural environment is infested with several types of plastics, all having different chemical makeup, structure, shape, and origin. Plastic trash acts as a substrate for microbial growth, creating biofilms on the plastisphere surface. This colonizing microbial diversity can be glimpsed with meta-genomics, a culture-independent approach. Owing to its comprehensive description of microbial communities, genealogical evidence on unconventional biocatalysts or enzymes, genomic correlations, evolutionary profile, and function, it is being touted as one of the promising tools in identifying novel enzymes for the degradation of polymers. Additionally, computational tools such as molecular docking can predict the binding of these novel enzymes to the polymer substrate, which can be validated through in vitro conditions for its environmentally feasible applications. This review mainly deals with the exploration of metagenomics along with computational tools to provide a clearer perspective into the microbial potential in the biodegradation of microplastics. The computational tools due to their polymathic nature will be quintessential in identifying the enzyme structure, binding affinities of the prospective enzymes to the substrates, and foretelling of degradation pathways involved which can be quite instrumental in the furtherance of the plastic degradation studies.

Organisation(s)

Institute of Sanitary Engineering and Waste Management

External Organisation(s)

Indian Institute of Technology Indore (IITI)
University of Calcutta
West Bengal State University (WBSU)

Type

Review article

Journal

CHEMOSPHERE

Volume

351

No. of pages

17

ISSN

0045-6535

Publication date

03.2024

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Environmental Engineering, Environmental Chemistry, Chemistry(all), Pollution, Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health, Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being, SDG 15 - Life on Land

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2024.141271 (Access: Closed)