An innovative strategy to select polyester-degrading microbial species and enzymes from the Red Sea mangrove sediments using polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and cork material as sole source of carbon

A two-stage selection strategy was carried out by using PET and cork to enrich microbial consortia from mangrove sediments with enzymatic capabilities to depolymerize PET. To enhance microbial growth, changes in culture conditions were performed along the strategy. Bacterial successional dynamics were monitored by 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing over eight dilution-growth cycles. Metagenomic analysis enabled the reconstruction of genomes and the prediction of functional capabilities of the microbial consortia.