J Mol Biol 215:403–410Īyayee P, Rosa C, Ferry JG, Felton G, Saunders M, Hoover K (2014) Gut microbes contribute to nitrogen provisioning in a wood-feeding cerambycid. Sci Total Environ 649:1075–1082Īltschul SF, Gish W, Miller W, Myers EW, Lipman DJ (1990) Basic local alignment search tool. Combined with previously reported plastic-degrading capability and nitrogen-fixing activity, mealworms may be potential candidates for up-recycling of plastic waste to produce protein sources.Īboelkheir MG, Visconte LY, Oliveira GE, Toledo Filho RD, Souza FG (2019) The biodegradative effect of Tenebrio molitor Linnaeus larvae on vulcanized SBR and tire crumb. These findings first build the relationship between plastic degradation (carbon metabolism) and nitrogen fixation (nitrogen metabolism) within mealworms. By using the traditional culture-dependent technique, PCR and RT-PCR of nifH gene, nitrogen-fixing bacteria diversity within the gut was detected, and the genus Klebsiella was demonstrated to be an important nitrogen-fixing symbiont.

Eliminating the gut microbial microbiota with antibiotics impairs the mealworm’s ability to fix nitrogen from the atmosphere, indicating the contribution of gut microbiota to nitrogen fixation. Nature nitrogen isotopic analyses of plastic-eating mealworms provide further evidence for the assimilation of fixed nitrogen as a new nitrogen source. gut −1 and the corresponding fixed nitrogen equivalents of protein are estimated as 8.6 to 23.0 µg per day per mealworm.Acetylene reduction assays illustrate that the nitrogen-fixing activity ranges from 12.3 ± 0.7 to 32.9 ± 9.3 nmol ethylene Here, we provide the evidence for nitrogen fixation activity within plastic-eating mealworms. It remains puzzling how plastic-eating mealworms overcome the nutritional obstacle of nitrogen limitation. However, vinyl plastics are carbon-rich but nitrogen-deficient. Mealworms, the larvae of a coleopteran insect Tenebrio molitor L., are capable of eating, living on, and degrading non-hydrolyzable vinyl plastics as sole diet.

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