Building a Better Beetle Through Microbiome Manipulation
Abstract
Researchers have discovered that the larvae of at least two waxworm moths could eat polyethylene (PE, PET, or PES) and that larvae of at least two species of darkling beetle (mealworms) could eat Polystyrene (PS, Styrofoam), and in some select cases PE [1-5]. In both situations, gut microbes are ultimately responsible for degradation of these polymers and efforts to utilize only the gut bacteria to degrade plastics have fallen short. Our primary objective is to determine if we can successfully transplant gut bacterial communities from the waxworm, which is not an optimal model for large scale composting, to the mealworm which continually feeds throughout its adult and larval life stages, is flightless, a prolific breeder, and extremely docile. Building a better beetle is possible but moving an entire microbiome from one phylogenetic order of animal to another in a sustainable manner is not a trivial task and would require basic research investigation. Hypothesis 1: The gut microbiota of the darkling beetle (mealworm) is sufficiently pliable to allow the introduction and establishment of a complementary plastics-degrading gut microbiota from the waxworm moth. Hypothesis 2: An engineered gut microbiome will allow darkling beetles to degrade a wider range of plastics compared to the wild-type. Prediction: Darkling beetles with engineered gut microbiomes will cause bulk PE and PS loss greater than 20 at a 1:1 ratio of animal to PE/PS weight with mixed food waste supplementation.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 31, 2022
- Accession Number
- AD1186974
Entities
People
- Carina M. Jung
Organizations
- Engineer Research and Development Center