Ethan Clarke
Wax worms, the larval form of a small moth, are insects that evolved to live in bee hives and feed on beeswax. In a chance discovery, scientist Federica Bertocchini found that these worms could also eat plastic bags. This finding has sparked hope that wax worms could be used to tackle the global plastic waste crisis. The precise mechanism by which wax worms digest plastic is still under investigation, but it is believed to be related to the chemical similarity between beeswax and plastic, as well as the enzymes produced by the worms or bacteria in their gut.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Wax worms' ability to break down plastic | Their ability to break down beeswax is thought to be similar to their ability to break down plastic |
| How wax worms break down plastic | It is unclear whether this ability comes from enzymes found on the skin of the wax worm or from microbes found in its gut |
| The role of enzymes | The enzymes in wax worms convert polyethylene into ethylene glycol, a chemical commonly used in antifreeze |
| The role of microbes | The presence of microbes in the wax worm's gut is important for biodegradation |
| The survival rate of wax worms on a plastic diet | Wax worms on a PE diet had an 80% survival rate |
| Ethical considerations | If wax worms were accidentally released into the wild, struggling bee populations might be severely impacted |
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What You'll Learn
- Wax worms can break down plastic bags in under 40 minutes
- The worms' saliva contains phenol oxidase enzymes that can oxidise and destroy plastic polymers
- The worms' gut bacteria may be responsible for the biodegradation of plastic
- The worms' natural diet of honeycomb is chemically similar to plastic
- The worms' ability to break down plastic was discovered by accident
Wax worms can break down plastic bags in under 40 minutes
Wax worms, the larval form of a small moth, are insects that evolved to live in bee hives and feed on beeswax. In a chance discovery, scientist Federica Bertocchini found that these worms created holes in a plastic bag. She teamed up with scientists from the University of Cambridge and confirmed, through several experiments, that the worms are able to break down the chemical bonds of PE, a type of plastic called polyethylene. This is a notoriously resilient plastic that takes decades to break down naturally.
The worms' ability to break down beeswax is thought to be similar to their ability to break down plastic. Beeswax and plastic are both composed of long chains of carbon, which allows phenol oxidase enzymes in worm saliva to oxidize and destroy these polymers. The precise enzymes responsible for breaking down polyethylene have not yet been identified, but they may be found on the skin of the wax worm or in the microbes in its gut.
To test whether the worms were simply chewing up the plastic or breaking it down chemically, scientists created a mixture of crushed wax worms and spread it on a thin sheet of PE plastic. They found that the mixture of dead worms did, in fact, biodegrade PE at an even higher rate than live worms. This suggests that the degradation is not due to the mechanical action of the worms' jaws, but rather to an enzyme in the worms or the bacteria living in and on their bodies.
In a study, 100 wax worms were found to biodegrade 92 milligrams of a plastic shopping bag overnight. At this rate, it would take these worms nearly a month to completely break down an average plastic bag. However, the worms created an average of 2.2 holes per hour, so they can chew sizable holes in a plastic bag within 40 minutes.
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The worms' saliva contains phenol oxidase enzymes that can oxidise and destroy plastic polymers
Wax worms, the larval form of a small moth, get their name from their natural diet of wax in bee hives. They have been found to eat plastic, specifically polyethylene, a type of plastic commonly used in shopping bags. This discovery was made by amateur beekeeper and scientist Frederica Bertocchini, who noticed that wax worms were creating holes in a plastic bag.
Subsequent experiments revealed that wax worms can chemically dissolve plastic at a rapid rate. This is due to the presence of phenol oxidase enzymes in their saliva, which can oxidise and destroy plastic polymers. The precise enzymes responsible for this process are yet to be identified, but they are thought to be produced by the worms themselves or by bacteria in their guts.
The wax worms' ability to break down plastic is attributed to their natural diet of wax, which has similar chemical bonds to polyethylene. By comparing the survival rates of wax worms fed only PE with those on traditional wax worm diets, scientists found that PE does not provide sufficient nutrition for the worms, leading to ethical concerns about using wax worms on a large scale for plastic waste management.
Instead, the current focus is on identifying and mass-producing the enzymes responsible for breaking down plastic, which could be a potential solution to the global plastic pollution crisis.
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The worms' gut bacteria may be responsible for the biodegradation of plastic
Wax worms are the larval form of a small moth, commonly known as Galleria Mellonella. They are called wax worms because they live on the wax in bee hives. In a chance discovery, scientist Frederica Bertocchini found that these worms created holes in a plastic bag. She teamed up with scientists from the University of Cambridge and confirmed, through several experiments, that the worms are able to break down the chemical bonds of PE.
The worms' ability to break down beeswax is thought to be similar to their ability to break down plastic. However, it is still unclear whether this ability comes from enzymes found on the skin of the wax worm or from microbes found in its gut. To rule out mechanical degradation from the wax worms chewing and munching on the plastic, scientists created a mixture of crushed wax worms and spread it on a thin sheet of PE plastic for two hours. The results showed that the mixture of dead worms did, in fact, biodegrade PE at an even higher rate than live worms.
Further research has shown that when a wax worm with an intact intestinal microbial community (microbiome) consumes plastic, the biodegradation process is expedited. This indicates that the wax worm and its microbiome work in partnership to break down polyethylene.
In addition, when waxworms were fed on their natural honeycomb diet, polyethylene sheets, or were starved for up to 72 hours, it was found that polyethylene-fed waxworms had the highest microbial abundance of all three diets, suggesting that gut bacteria were important for biodegradation. An Acinetobacter species of gut bacteria was identified, which survived on polyethylene in culture for over a year.
Therefore, the worms' gut bacteria may be responsible for the biodegradation of plastic.
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The worms' natural diet of honeycomb is chemically similar to plastic
Wax worms are the larval form of a small moth that lives on the wax in bee hives. They get their name from their natural diet of honeycomb, which is chemically similar to plastic. Like plastic, wax is a polymer, consisting of a long string of carbon atoms with other atoms branching off the sides.
Wax worms can chew through plastic, creating holes in plastic bags within 40 minutes. They can also digest plastic, breaking down the chemical bonds of polyethylene (PE), a common plastic. This discovery was made by amateur beekeeper Federica Bertocchini, who noticed that wax worms were creating holes in a plastic bag she had used to collect them.
The worms' ability to break down plastic is thought to be due to enzymes in their bodies that can dissolve polyethylene, converting it into ethylene glycol. This ability is likely related to their natural diet of beeswax, which has similar chemical bonds to PE. Scientists have conducted experiments to confirm that the degradation of plastic is not simply due to the mechanical action of chewing, but is caused by enzymes or microbes in the worms' bodies.
The discovery of wax worms' ability to break down plastic has sparked interest in their potential to help tackle the global plastic pollution crisis. However, there are also ethical and environmental concerns about this approach, as well as the possibility of isolating and extracting the relevant enzymes or bacteria for industrial use.
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The worms' ability to break down plastic was discovered by accident
The discovery of wax worms' ability to break down plastic was indeed an accident. In 2019, Dr. Frederica Bertocchini, an amateur beekeeper and developmental biologist at the University of Cantabria in Spain, was cleaning out her backyard bee hives. She removed some wax worms (Galleria mellonella) living in the hive and placed them in an old plastic bag. A short time later, she noticed that the worms had started producing small holes in the plastic, which began degrading as soon as it touched the worms' mouths.
Bertocchini described this as a "eureka moment" and recognized the potential significance of her accidental discovery. She teamed up with fellow scientists Paolo Bombelli and Christopher Howe to further investigate the phenomenon. They found that wax worms could create an average of 2.2 holes per hour in polyethylene plastic, and 100 wax worms could degrade 92 milligrams of a plastic shopping bag overnight.
To determine whether the degradation was caused by the worms' chewing action, Bertocchini and her colleagues applied a mixture of crushed wax worms to the plastic. They found that the liquid larvae could also create holes in the plastic, indicating that an enzyme in the worms or the bacteria living in and on their bodies was responsible for dissolving the plastic.
The precise enzymes involved in breaking down the plastic are still being studied, and there are ongoing efforts to scale up this process for widespread use in degrading plastic. The discovery of wax worms' ability to break down plastic offers a potential solution to the global plastic pollution crisis.
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Frequently asked questions
Wax worms are the larval form of a small moth that lives on the wax in bee hives. They have the ability to break down beeswax, which is chemically similar to plastic. It is thought that enzymes in the worms or bacteria living in and on their bodies dissolve the plastic.
Amateur beekeeper Federica Bertocchini noticed that her hives were infested with wax worms. After putting the worms in a plastic bag, she noticed they had created small holes in it.
Scientists are hopeful that the enzymes produced by the worms could be mass-produced and used to tackle the world's plastic pollution crisis.
