Polyethylene is a plastic pollutant impacting marine life, calling for advanced remediation methods such as biodegradation. However, there is actually limited information on polyethylene-degrading bacteria in the marine environment. Here, we studied bacterial degradation of polyethylene and associated phthalates additives using scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared, gel permeation chromatography and genomic and transcriptomic techniques. Results show that a deep-sea bacteria, Acinetobacter venetianus F1, can degrade 12.2% of polyethylene after 56 days, following the alkane metabolic pathway. Phthalates were also degraded via the metabolic pathways of benzoic acid and phthalic acid. This is first report of polyethylene-degrading bacteria from deep-sea environments.

聚乙烯是一种影响海洋生物的塑料污染物，需要生物降解等先进的修复方法。然而，有关海洋环境中聚乙烯降解细菌的信息实际上很有限。在这里，我们使用扫描电子显微镜、傅里叶变换红外、凝胶渗透色谱以及基因组和转录组技术研究了聚乙烯和相关邻苯二甲酸酯添加剂的细菌降解。结果表明，深海细菌威尼斯不动杆菌F1 可以按照烷烃代谢途径在 56 天后降解 12.2% 的聚乙烯。邻苯二甲酸盐也通过苯甲酸和邻苯二甲酸的代谢途径降解。这是深海环境中聚乙烯降解细菌的首次报告。