Mesophilic compostability of polylactic acid and the associated microbiome as revealed by metagenomics

2025 · doi:10.1101/2025.06.29.662191
preprint OA: closed CC-BY-4.0
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The study investigated whether polylactic acid (PLA) could be biodegraded in compost under mesophilic (rather than thermophilic) temperatures, and it developed compost conditions that demonstrated clear PLA breakdown. Using metagenomics, the authors profiled the microbial communities and the enzyme-coding potential associated with PLA biodegradation in these trained composts, finding multiple enzyme subtypes enriched on PLA surfaces. The top candidate was a hydro-lyase with the ability to cleave carbon–carbon and carbon–oxygen bonds in PLA’s chemical structure without water, and the authors propose that combinatorial enzyme actions enable degradation and overcome the temperature barrier. The paper focuses on PLA compostability and does not discuss limitations specific to the compost experiment beyond the temperature requirement it addresses. The paper does not explicitly discuss endometriosis or adenomyosis; it was included in the corpus via a keyword match in the upstream search index.

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Abstract

Polylactic acid (PLA), the most popular bioplastic, has high sustainability potential as it is bio-sourced and also harbors biodegradability. A form of its biodegradability is via composting, and it was previously established that thermophilic temperatures are needed for PLA breakdown in composts. Here we report the development of composts that have overcome the temperature requirement needed for PLA composting. Our mesophilic composts exhibited clear PLA biodegradability, and this is due to specific biological activity enriched in our material. To investigate the nature of this mesophilic activity, we conducted metagenomics analysis to reveal the microbial composition and enzyme-coding potential associated with PLA biodegradation. These efforts revealed multiple enzyme subtypes with strong enrichment on PLA surfaces in our trained composts, and the top candidate was a type of hydro-lyase, an enzyme that can cleave carbon-carbon and carbon-oxygen bonds, both present in the chemical structure of PLA, in the absence of water. Hydro-lyases represent a novel class of enzymes that could facilitate PLA degradation, and our results point to the model that the combinatorial action of multiple types of enzymes is what drives PLA biodegradation and how the temperature barrier for PLA composting is overcome.
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Abstract Polylactic acid (PLA), the most popular bioplastic, has high sustainability potential as it is bio-sourced and also harbors biodegradability. A form of its biodegradability is via composting, and it was previously established that thermophilic temperatures are needed for PLA breakdown in composts. Here we report the development of composts that have overcome the temperature requirement needed for PLA composting. Our mesophilic composts exhibited clear PLA biodegradability, and this is due to specific biological activity enriched in our material. To investigate the nature of this mesophilic activity, we conducted metagenomics analysis to reveal the microbial composition and enzyme-coding potential associated with PLA biodegradation. These efforts revealed multiple enzyme subtypes with strong enrichment on PLA surfaces in our trained composts, and the top candidate was a type of hydro-lyase, an enzyme that can cleave carbon-carbon and carbon-oxygen bonds, both present in the chemical structure of PLA, in the absence of water. Hydro-lyases represent a novel class of enzymes that could facilitate PLA degradation, and our results point to the model that the combinatorial action of multiple types of enzymes is what drives PLA biodegradation and how the temperature barrier for PLA composting is overcome. Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.

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License: CC-BY-4.0