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Stenotrophomonas maltophilia Isolated from the Gut Symbiotic Community of the Plastic-Eating Tenebrio molitor

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Abstract

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) waste is a major environmental challenge. In this study, we found that a PVC-eating insect, Tenebrio molitor, could survive by consuming PVC as a dietary supplement. To understand the gut symbiotic community, metagenomic analysis was performed to reveal the biodiversity of a symbiotic community in the midgut of Tenebrio molitor. Among them, seven genera were enriched from the midgut of the insect under culture conditions with PVC as carbon source. A strain of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia was isolated from the midgut symbiotic community of the plastic-eating Tenebrio molitor. To unravel the functional gene for the biodegradation enzyme, we sequenced the whole genome of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia and found that orf00390, annotated as a hydrolase, was highly expressed in the PVC culture niche.

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Data Availability

The datasets generated during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We also would like to thank the iBiofoundary and Core Facility of Institute for Intelligent Bio/Chem Manufacturing, and Hangzhou Global Scientific and Technological Innovation Center (China) for fabrication and analysis.

Funding

This work was funded by The Key Research and Development Program (2023YFC3402402) by Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China, ZJU-Hangzhou Global Scientific and Technological Innovation Center, Zhejiang University (02020200-K02013008), ShanghaiTech University (2013F020100001, 2014 × 020150110, and 2015 × 02015012), and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2022M722785).

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Author notes

  1. Shasha Ye, Yi Lu, Guo Li, and Dongfang Li contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 310027, China

    Shasha Ye, Guo Li & Yuan Yao

  2. ZJU-Hangzhou Global Scientific and Technological Innovation Center, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 311215, China

    Shasha Ye, Yi Lu, Guo Li, Dongfang Li & Yuan Yao

  3. School of Physical Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, 201210, China

    Yi Lu & Yuan Yao

  4. Zhejiang Lab, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 311121, China

    Yuan Yao

  5. Hangzhou Qizhen Testing Co.Ltd., Hangzhou, 311215, China

    Dongfang Li & Yujin Wu

Authors
  1. Shasha Ye
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  2. Yi Lu
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  3. Guo Li
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  4. Dongfang Li
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Contributions

Yuan Yao: investigation, materials synthesis, characterization, data analysis, writing original draft. Shasha Ye: investigation. Yi Lu: materials synthesis, characterization. Guo Li: data analyzing, writing—review and editing. Dongfang Li: investigation, data analyzing. Yujin Wu: investigation, resources. Yuan Yao: idea design, writing—review and editing, project administration, fund supporting. Yuan Yao: supervision, project administration.

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Correspondence to Yuan Yao.

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Ye, S., Lu, Y., Li, G. et al. Stenotrophomonas maltophilia Isolated from the Gut Symbiotic Community of the Plastic-Eating Tenebrio molitor. Appl Biochem Biotechnol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-024-04921-7

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