Microplastic, in the form of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), is a significant pollutant in marine environments. “Mangrove ecosystems are particularly vulnerable to the accumulation of fossil-derived plastics,” says KAUST researcher Diego Javier Jiménez Avella. “These ecosystems are natural sinks, but they are also potentially promising reservoirs of novel lignocellulose- and plastic-transforming enzymes.”

Jiménez, a research scientist in Alexandre Rosado’s team, led an international project that showed adding lignocellulose in the form of rice husks to mangrove soils increased the likelihood of recovering potential PET-degrading enzymes such as PETases.

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