unleashing Polyethylene eating bacteria to the pacific garbage patch

[MC.STEEL]

So recently ^{(citation needed)} they have discovered bacteria that only eats Polyethylene.

So what will happen if we release it to the great pacific garbage patch?

How well would it spread and at what speed will it devour the plastic?

And would there be any adverse effects on the biosphere?

Since they cant eat anything else they would be food for other micro organisms is my guess.

[K^2]

For biosphere, things would be good. For our civilization, that can be rather bad. Polyethylene is used in a lot of places where you don't want things going bad. Imagine anything made out of that material becoming susceptible to rot, anything from shopping bags to medical supplies. That can be bad. I would not risk letting it loose on large enough food source to let it spread and potentially mutate into something that's more competitive and resilient.

[lajoswinkler]

Micronized plastic has entered the food chain, but it's an inert material in the guts of eucariotic organisms. Eventually, the stuff sinks to the bottom of the ocean, just like regular marine snow, where it's burried. It's not something that circulates simply because it's inert and insoluble.

I wouldn't release any organism that devours plastic for the reasons K^2 mentioned. It could be a disaster.

[Cmdr. Arn1e]

I think it would probably work better if you had some sort of garbage disposal ship come along and scoop up the plastic in the garbage patch, and transfer it to a big vat of this bacteria... more contained, less risk of it making it way back to the mainland, and then can be used again when needed...

The problem with any bacteria 'discovery' or 'creation' is that usually when 1st discovered, the bacteria is very weak - it takes a long time of slective breeding in a lab to have a bacteria reach its maximum usefulness, and this can sometimes take years!

For example, scientist found bacteria in the soil around Coca plants (The plant Cocaine is made from) that actually eat the drug... great-sounding, right? Not until recently - the original bacteria did not eat very much, and could only survive in the soil around these plants due to the temperature and other conditions. So how to make it useful? They bred lots and lots of strains, and only recently have they discovered a super-mutant strain of the bacteria that A) can survive for long(ish) periods in the human body and can eat enough of the drug to make some difference - this new mutnt strain can eat something like 500x the amount the original strain of the bacteria could, so it could be administered in extreme overdose cases or used to help treat Addiction and Withdrawal Symptoms... (Ref: http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/microbial-enzymes-eat-cocaine-could-be-novel-treatment-abuse)

[lajoswinkler]

I think it would probably work better if you had some sort of garbage disposal ship come along and scoop up the plastic in the garbage patch, and transfer it to a big vat of this bacteria... more contained, less risk of it making it way back to the mainland, and then can be used again when needed...

The problem is that the patch is not made of visible garbage. It's micronized pieces of polymer. You wouldn't see a thing looking at it from a ship or a plane, so if you want to scoop that, you'd have to filter an awful lot of sea water using dense filters. It's a futile work.

[Cmdr. Arn1e]

The problem is that the patch is not made of visible garbage. It's micronized pieces of polymer. You wouldn't see a thing looking at it from a ship or a plane, so if you want to scoop that, you'd have to filter an awful lot of sea water using dense filters. It's a futile work.

Then I guess it might be probable to engineer it/mutate it in some way that it has a short life and virtually 0 reproductive ability and release it... stopping it spreading to land is a high priority...

[lajoswinkler]

Then I guess it might be probable to engineer it/mutate it in some way that it has a short life and virtually 0 reproductive ability and release it... stopping it spreading to land is a high priority...

Precisely, but the engineering needs to be superb. If that thing mutates (bacteria do it fast) it can go rogue.

[Creature]

A quick search revealed that the mechanism function via expressing an enzyme called alkane hydroxylase and it's actually present in certain marine bacterial plankton already. I didn't find any mention if this being the only source of energy for the cells though but if it's in otherwise energy-poor environment it would use polyethylene exclusively.

You could possibly insert the gene in a plasmid to an already existing wild type strain and let it loose on the area. If it's too big for a plasmid then just do a few rounds of selection based on the hydroxylase expression or to be more precise you'd want to select solely based on growth speed in a growth medium with polyethylene as limiting factor since it's uncertain which other factors contribute to effectiveness of energy source usage. Either way you could let it loose on the patch where it would have a competitive edge due to being more effective at consuming the available energy source. The only thing it could do compared to a wild strain is drop the plasmid or be outcompeted by other strains if there's better energy sources available. Once the polyethylene is consumed in an area the modified strain will die out and return to normal levels. Any chances of random mutations are exactly the same than with any other wild bacteria in the region.

However there's big chance that it wouldn't be such a huge successs, ecological systems are unpredictable and if using polyethylene as competitive advantage would be a good idea, there would most likely already be a plankton species exploiting it.

[Cmdr. Arn1e]

Precisely, but the engineering needs to be superb. If that thing mutates (bacteria do it fast) it can go rogue.

Yep, and that's why I said about 0 reproductive ability - if you are engineering a microbe or virus, then it's easiest to strip out the entire reproductive sequence to be sure!

And as mutation is most likely to occur during reproduction, it cuts down on chances of mutation as a result...

but nature is finicky, and sometimes the unexpected can happen even when the odds are billion-to-one, heh...

[Coldfinger008]

Yep, and that's why I said about 0 reproductive ability

Exactly how will you make multiple cubic meters of bacteria solution then :S ?

[MC.STEEL]

Exactly how will you make multiple cubic meters of bacteria solution then :S ?

Whe could try making some type of breeder cell but thats a whole new suitcase full of headaches on the developers.

[Coldfinger008]

Whe could try making some type of breeder cell but thats a whole new suitcase full of headaches on the developers.

That sounds awesome

[Camacha]

Yep, and that's why I said about 0 reproductive ability - if you are engineering a microbe or virus, then it's easiest to strip out the entire reproductive sequence to be sure!

And as mutation is most likely to occur during reproduction, it cuts down on chances of mutation as a result...

You are really courting disaster doing it that way. There is no guarantee at all there will not be some unforeseen mutation after all. Despite our technological advances, we will likely be making the sames mistakes that our ancestors made when they released rabbits or cane toads into Australia.

If you do not want something to be out in the wild, you should not make (let alone release) it at all. It is sheer hubris to think it will be fine.