Talk:Sphingomonas

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 26 August 2021 and 25 December 2021. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): NihalReddy34, ContributingCamel.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 10:00, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Biodegradation of Polyethylene very doubtable
I'm currently doing research for an article about biodegradation of plastics. Thus, I've read up on a lot of studies and talked to some researchers, also mentioning the alleged finding of Sphingomonas feeding on PE.

There have been a lot of lab tests with microorganisms attacking PE, however they all indicated it was not (quickly) possible. This also seems plausible given the pure C-C binding structure of the polymere and ist hydrophobic nature, both making it a bad target for enzyme decomposition.

A scientist I talked to came up with an alternative theory on why the plastic bags of that canadian boy disintegrated: Bacteria may not be able to eat PE, but the plasticisers it contains. Strip those away and the material becomes clearer and more brittle - exactly what they found. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.65.13.50 (talk) 11:19, 10 December 2009 (UTC)