Microbial community dynamics of a polyester film-degrading marine enrichment culture

In this study, we present a multiomics approach to elucidate the biodegradation mechanism of a commercial aromatic-aliphatic copolyester film by a marine microbial enrichment culture. Marine seawater and eulittoral sediment samples were collected from three different sources: Helgoland, Germany (54°11’ 17.0" N 7°52’ 50.1" E), near Athens, Greece (37°53’ 33" N, 23°24’ 30" E) and Elba, Italy (42°44’ 00.8" N 10°09’ 14.4" E). The enrichment cultures were made by inoculating the seawater/sediment slurry in marine minimal medium containing the polyester film as sole C source. Community composition and function was examined by metagenome/transcriptome analysis a)of the plastic biofilm/free-living fractions separately, b) after a starvation period (t0) and addition of new plastic substrate after one hour (t1), 24 hours (t2) and seven days (t3). In addition to the plastic film, the culture was grown on each monomer separately and metagenomes were analysed for each different growth condition.